Officers investigating a shooting at a street party in Manchester which led to 12 people being taken to hospital have said the answer to who carried out the attack “may lie within the community”.
Greater Manchester police said it was lucky no one was killed by the “completely reckless” shooting at about 2.25am on Sunday while hundreds celebrated a Caribbean carnival in the city’s Moss Side area.
Twelve people were treated at hospital for their injuries, nine of whom have now been discharged. Two men, aged 23 and 30, and a 12-year-old girl remain in hospital, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
GMP said it was still working to establish the full circumstances surrounding the attack, which they do not believe to be gang related, and called on members of the public to help to find the person responsible.
Hundreds were attending a street party in Claremont Road when shots were fired, causing people to flee in panic. Investigators believe the weapon to have been a shotgun, which was discharged into the crowd on at least two occasions. The gun is yet to be recovered.
Ch Supt Wasim Chaudhry said: “A key part of that work to establish the full picture is information from the community being fed into the investigation team by members of the public.
“The person responsible for this incident recklessly fired a gun into a crowd of people enjoying a celebration of Caribbean culture, which included children.
“One of those injured by the shooting was a 12-year-old girl who remains in hospital with her family at her bedside but thankfully she should make a full recovery.
“We need to get answers for her family and the loved ones of all the people injured in the incident and we believe those answers may lie within the community. I want to urge anyone who thinks they may know anything to please get in touch.
“If people don’t feel comfortable contacting the police then [they] can report information anonymously to Crimestoppers, which is a charity that is completely independent from the police.”
As many as 16,000 people had turned out on Sunday for Moss Side’s annual Caribbean Carnival, which this year celebrated the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush generation. The official event, which finished at 8pm, took place in the nearby Alexandra Park, but two unofficial street parties were held afterwards.
Police said on Sunday that they were investigating the incident as attempted murder. “It would be obvious to any particular person that discharging a firearm in a large crowd like this is completely reckless,” said Chaudhry.
“We can’t minimise the risk that the public were put into and the fact that this could have been far worse. We could have been dealing with life-threatening injuries and we could indeed be investigating multiple murders.”
