West Midlands Police’s Chief Constable found himself on the wrong side of Twitter jibes after falling into a canal following a chase on Wednesday evening.

Dave Thompson was on patrol with the Ladywood neighbourhood team in Birmingham and was called into action when a report of a 16-year-old being robbed came in.

Officers chased the suspects and Mr Thompson went to retrieve the bag that had been thrown into the canal by Northbrook Street.

He found himself taking an unintentional swim, however, after falling into the body of water and was himself retrieved by officers. Two kitchen knives were discovered inside the bag.

“They say #Birmingham has more canals than Venice,” Mr Thompson tweeted. “I don’t know about that but tonight I had a little swim.”

In replying to the comments, Mr Thompson tweeted “I still can’t work out how it happened!” and declared himself “damp not broken”.

“Can’t wait to see this body cam footage” the West Midlands Police Traffic Unit tweeted while the region’s operational support unit posted: “Sir, do you realise you have a team of SWOT Officers who will come and do that for you!”

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of robbery and possession of a bladed article. Two others boys, aged 13 and 14, have been detained on suspicion of robbery.

“Thank you for coming out with the team this evening Sir (and still with us currently),” Ladywood Police tweeted to Mr Thompson.

“Good arrests of 3 violent offenders, stolen property and weapons seized! Worth the lil dip to cool off”.

The 16-year-old was said to be left shaken but not injured.