A worried shopper could be heard asking 'where's the police?'
Greater Manchester's chief constable says police must 'get a grip' in problem hotspots after shocking footage emerged of an armed group terrorising a market. Balaclava-wearing bikers were seen with what appeared to be a baseball bat and a pair of bolt cutters as they left shoppers at Hyde Market horrified last Friday afternoon .
Chief Constable Stephen Watson, of Greater Manchester Police, was challenged over the 'terrifying' incident on BBC Radio Manchester this morning . While admitting that the moment the incident unfolded would feel like 'a lifetime for people who are there', he insisted three or four minutes is 'not a long time' for police to respond.
"It consists of 798 people, it's not an insignificant number of police officers and PCSOs who are dedicated to those neighbourhoods. What we have done which is different is that they are not deployed to other issues, so they will be left in place to serve the communities that they are responsible to.
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