{"id":723549,"date":"2026-08-01T23:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/723549\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T23:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:33:09","slug":"cardiff-taff-trail-attacks-see-youths-in-balaclavas-target-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/723549\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff Taff Trail attacks see youths in balaclavas target children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police are patrolling riverside paths in Wales’ capital, after attacks by youths in balaclavas, including an attempted assault on plain-clothed officers. <\/p>\n

Pedestrians and cyclists have been targeted on the Taff Trail in Hailey Park, Gabalfa, and Llandaff.<\/p>\n

Concerned parents said their children have been attacked while riding bikes on the trail since June. <\/p>\n

South Wales Police has increased patrols on its section of the Taff Trail that runs for 55 miles (88.5km) from Brecon in Powys to Cardiff. <\/p>\n

While the force did not have statistics for crimes on the Taff Trail for June, boys aged 13 and 11 were arrested earlier this month.<\/p>\n

According to South Wales Police’s crime map, external<\/a>, the area of Llandaff North received 34 reports of anti-social behaviour in June.<\/p>\n

Riverside, another area the Taff Trail runs through, had 18 reports, and Gabalfa had eight. <\/p>\n

Speaking at a cyclist safety meeting on 28 July, Insp Tim Ursell said a youth was arrested on the Taff Trail a couple of weeks ago after jumping out “on two of my plain-clothed officers” and was “fully prepared to assault them”.<\/p>\n

The force confirmed officers received a 999 call reporting an attempted robbery at 15.45 BST on 23 July near Sophia Gardens. <\/p>\n

A 13-year-old from Old St Mellons, was arrested, and following a plain clothes patrol, a second boy, 11, from Penylan, was also arrested. <\/p>\n

Both have been released on bail pending further enquiries.<\/p>\n

The force identified the Taff Trail along with Bute Park as areas experiencing a higher level of youth anti-social behaviours. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are patrolling riverside paths in Wales’ capital, after attacks by youths in balaclavas, including an attempted assault…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-723549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}