Manchester City Centre Incident

I have been provided with information about a very serious city centre incident in Manchester. On the face of it it may seem that a Manchester city centre incident does not have any bearing on us here in Chester. Not so necessarily. Read on for more information:

City Centre Incident

Below is the city centre incident message as passed on to me…..

Whilst this may not be an immediate Chester related, Cheshire Police have requested that the information provided by Neighbourhood Alert Support Team, be circulated around all major towns and cities throughout the UK.

The soul intention is to create greater awareness for residents to know how to handle such situations should they ever be involved in similar circumstances.

Chester residents are clearly no exception to that professional advice, hence the reason for posting it on their behalf.

The City Centre Incident In Detail

Below you will see a statement from Assistant Chief Constable, Russ Jackson from Greater Manchester Police on behalf of Counter Terrorism Policing.

This particular city centre incident occurred on the morning of 11th October in the Arndale Shopping Centre in Manchester City Centre.

The message includes further resources and guidance.

Manchester City Centre Incident

“At 11.15 am this morning a man entered the Arndale Shopping Centre in Manchester City Centre. He was armed with a large knife and as he entered Exchange Court, he began lunging and attacking people with the knife.

Two unarmed Police Community Support Officers were in Exchange Court and attempted to confront the attacker. He then chased them with the knife as they were calling for urgent assistance. The man attacked people around him and we understand 5 people were injured by him.

Although the injuries are nasty, we are told that thankfully none are life threatening. We know there were lots of people in the Arndale at the time and people can help us by sending any images or footage they have taken at the scene via the GMP website. This is a truly shocking incident, injuring a number of people and deeply frightening hundreds more.

We can reassure that the response was rapid. Furthermore, we have the man we believe to be the attacker safely in custody. We will now be working to understand why the man committed this awful attack. Other officers, both armed and unarmed, quickly responded and within 5 minutes. He was challenged and detained by armed officers on Market Street outside the Arndale.

City Centre Incident – Arrest Made

He was initially arrested for serious assaults. Also, he was taken into police custody and has now been arrested on suspicion of causing, preparation and instigation of an act of terrorism.

So far we do not yet know the motivation for this terrible attack. It appears random, is certainly brutal and of course extremely frightening for anyone who witnessed it. We have arrested a man in his 40’s on suspicion of terrorism. Because of the nature and circumstances of this attack this is bound to bring back memories of the awful events of 2017.

At this time we do not believe that there is anyone else involved in this attack. However we will be constantly reviewing this. We have specially trained officers supporting those injured during the attack.

We will have increased patrols, including armed patrols, in the city this weekend. This is to reassure people, we do not believe there is a wider threat at this time and we are hoping to return the city centre to normality by tomorrow morning.

We Will Keep You Updated.

Please continue to follow @gmpolice for updates. Crowded Places Advice from the NCPP The UK faces a real threat from terrorism and crowded places remain an attractive target.

Crowded places include shopping centres, sports stadia, bars, pubs and clubs which are easily accessible to the public and attractive to terrorists.

Guidance has been written to help those charged with security at crowded places to mitigate the threat and help make the UK less vulnerable to an attack. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/crowded-places-guidance

Further Advice

Advice in relation to a Marauding Terrorist Attacks can be found on the CPNI website: https://www.cpni.gov.uk/marauding-terrorist-attacks-0

The National Coordinator recommends that businesses and organisations use the ACT e Learning package in order to enable your staff to prevent and respond to a terrorist attack should one take place.

Action Counters Terrorism (ACT).

This is an innovative 45-minute training scheme that could help prevent terror attacks. Also it covers how to spot the signs of suspicious behaviour and what to do if an attack should take place.

It is free to use. Also the package can be divided into short sections to suit business needs and it takes just three quarters of an hour to complete – 45 vital minutes that could save lives.

The ACT 2018 campaign was implemented to reinforce one particular message – that communities defeat terrorism. We encourage businesses to apply for registration and make us of this free resource.

For more information, please visit the National Counter Terrorism Security Office website: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/act-awareness-elearning

For more information relating to threat levels click here: https://www.mi5.gov.uk/threat-levels“

Thanks again to John from Blacon for this important message. As it says, a city centre incident like this can happen anywhere. Chester included obviously.

This is clearly a crimewatch incident of a different nature to the ones already reported. It is a very important message as you will no doubt agree. All the crimewatch messages are extremely important. You should really take the trouble to check the ones we’ve reported on HERE.

On A Personal Note

Only last week I was commenting on the possibility of such a scary incident. While queueing at the turnstiles at a Premier League footie match, two fellas behind me were moaning and groaning about the time it was taking for the now obligatory searches carried by stewards of all fans.

Why moan? A sports arena is a prime target. The searches are imperative for obvious reasons. It was fitting that someone else in the queue told them to shut up and stop moaning.

In short, we can’t have too much security can we.

Thanks John, keep them coming mate.