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Manchester Attacked: 9 August Riot Pictures And Documentary

The day and night of destruction in the city centre

Written by Jonathan Schofield. Published on August 9th 2011.

Manchester Attacked: 9 August Riot Pictures And Documentary

UPDATE Wednesday 10 August

There was a police and council update meeting this morning at 8am.

The attitude of all present was stern, concerned and still proud of their city.

Councillor Pat Karney said: "It is business as usual. As I came to the meeting this morning thousands of Mancunians were coming to work, going about their business, tidying their premises. What we don't want to happen is for people to lose their jobs over this, every job is important. The city will fight back against these thugs."

He appealed to parents to make sure they know where their kids are at all times. He also said he'd be seeking a meeting with the Prime Minister to talk about financial settlements for businesses that were attacked if insurance companies wormed out of paying for repairs and loss of stock and profits.

We asked Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan a question too. One many in Manchester and across the UK are asking.

"Why didn't you go in hard and break some heads? Many people in Manchester are wondering why you just seemed to stand off the thugs who were smashing the city."

"Breaking heads is not how we police," said Shewin. "It's not how we've been policing for many years. We kept to the powers we had. And if we had resorted to violence then we would have lowered ourselves to their level and maybe made the problem worse."

That answer won't satisfy many in Manchester.

Shewin claimed that over the course of the evening and night in the city centre there had been as many as 800 officers on duty.

At present there have been 113 arrests and many more are expected through the day. Most of these are for criminal damage while some were for public order offences.

Around 100 properties across Manchester and Salford have been seriously damaged.

The Assistant Chief Constable said there would be more officers on the streets tonight than last night just in case.

UPDATE: 00.30

Quiet now. For now.

UPDATE: 22:34

There are cars with lads in - it seems to us - trying to control all this. They are on phones, calling people all the time.

We have the moon, the Town Hall and a helicopter for company.

What will the parents say to the youths who come back from town with clothes, food and drink that aren't theirs? Nothing probably.

Helicopter, moon And Town Hall clock

UPDATE 22.00

So one of our writers saw about twenty lads breaking into High and Mighty. They'd failed to get into Bang and Olufsson.

There was a big lad - the boss - of about thirty five years old sat laughing against a lamppost.

"Look lads, he's taking pictures, sort the fucker."

Our man was surrounded by fourteen lads.

"Give us your camera, you twat," they said.

"I couldn't believe that lads as good looking and slim as you were breaking into High and Mighty" our correspondent said.

Pause.

Laughter.

Just for once, humour wins on a night without it.

UPDATE: 21.50

Is this now getting worse? People are dragging off fences from Albert Square for no discernible reason.

This is the Gordon Riots again - look it up.

There's a PHD in anthropology in this for someone.

Wandering down Booth Street, trying to get home, with a laptop in bag seven people came up to three of us.

"We're going to have to fight this lot," we thought and said.

But they changed their minds and turned away.

"Want some Pimms lads?" they said.

"Had loads already," we joshed.

There was a girl at the back.

"Does she look like a thief?" the last lad in the group said.

"You don't," we said. "You really don't."

"I'm not," she said almost sadly. "I want to go home I'm sick of all the trouble now."

There's a man running down Kennedy Street with two magnums of champagne. He just smashed one against the wall, wasted it.

UPDATE 21.05

It's scary as hell out there in Piccadilly. People raiding the amusement arcade, the change being thrown at the crowd of about 300 people.

Our correspondent nearly gets beaten up for taking the most recent pictures at the bottom of the gallery here.

Shouts of '5-0' and 'Dibble' as the Police make cautious appearances.

Tesco smashed into and raided. Crisps broken open and handed to the mob.

UPDATE 20.45

More extraordinary pictures on Manchester Confidential, check these out.

Fewer and fewer rioters around. Maybe they've got what they want.

Albert Square and Cross Street quiet. What will the night bring?

Confidential sending out people into the Northern Quarter and Piccadilly.

The city centre is a tip.

"Best night of my life this," says one lad of fifteen as he walks past. Measurements of what's good and what isn't is warped.

One shop on Deansgate defended by man with a bat.

UPDATE: 20.10

Police on Cross Street/King Street shouting: "Go home, go home, get out of the city." And the kids just laughed.

Here are some more pics - including ones of girls taking the jeans from a mannequin in Diesel on Cross Street.

It's all so bloody aimless and silly now there's almost something to say.

UPDATE: 19.55

It's like kids are in the ultimate disco here, it's a massive distortion of what's normal into something utterly different.

A kid passed by in Albert Square after a crowd surge and was pouring out wine from a bottle and putting petrol in. Things seem to be escalating.

This is recreational violence. Here are some more pictures.

There's a preacher telling the police they're going to die on Market Street.

Police charges everywhere. But are there enough police about?

Manchester's in trouble.

UPDATE: 19.30

Quote: "So we're going to do TK-Maxx first then?"

Fire vans every where.

At Ugg, older black man in his late twenties sent two young white lads aged fifteen, into the store, saw people filming him and got them out.

It's a multi-racial riot this. Every colour and creed. Mostly white lads.

Fires In Salford

UPDATE: 19.19

Fire in Miss Selfridge on Market Street.

The kids are clearly finding this tremendous fun. They seem to have no care for the fact they are hurting themselves and their families and their futures.

They have dressed in their best uniforms for the 'fun'.

Tesco in Market Street seems in trouble.

You can cut the atmosphere with a knife.

Reiss cleaned out.

UPDATE 19.02:

The Ugg store on New Cathedral Street has been completely looted.

Marks and Spencer have put trolleys against the door to prevent looters getting in.

Selfridges has been attacked.

There are problems on Market Street but the riot police have cordoned it off.

The Northern Quarter may have some problems.

All the shops and restaurants in town are closed except one.

Gordo, Sleuth and Grimsey are sat in it, prior to another sortie on to the streets.

UPDATE 18.48:

Sadly it seems the rumours are becoming reality.

A brief walk around the city centre revealed gangs of youths and men from age 12 up into their thirties congregating at key junctions.

It appeared they were waiting for a critical mass of their fellows to join them. On Exchange Street that critical mass was reached and a mob broke away and ran into St Ann's Square.

They were pursued by police, a sergeant barking, "In line, keep the line."

Round at the junction of St Ann's Street and Deansgate the windows of Patisserie Valerie had been smashed.

The mob had headed down towards Spinningfields.

The worrying thing is that behind the police line scores of lads were gathering again.

They could be heard saying, "Have you got him on his BBM?"

There seemed about two girls for every twenty or so males.

It looks like it's going to be a long night.

Police On Guard Outside Asda, Hulme

-----------------------------------------------------

That rumour mill eh?

Every hour rumours about potential riots in the city centre are being circulated.

'Only idiots destroy their own city.'

These are having an effect.

Major developers in the city centre have started to batten down the hatches, going so far as to offer 'boarding' for businesses.

Pizza Express has closed early, as have other city centre retailers; some pubs and bars are closing too. The phone shops are shuttered.

Many other businesses are staying open at present but who knows how the contagion of fear will spread? It's like a B-movie: 'Attack Of The Masked Teenagers'.

What is certain is this.

Apart from Pizza Express, where a member of staff in one of the city centre branches stated, "We're closing early under police advice", no other businesses have received this advice.

Instead, Greater Manchester Police has been absolutely clear.

This from GMP's Twitter feed (click here): 'Lots of rumours about businesses being advised to close by GMP. This is not true. No businesses (have been) told to close'.

This from the Assistant Chief Constable, Terry Sweeney, who said: "I want to reassure the public of Greater Manchester that there have been no disturbances or incidents of disorder or rioting here since trouble flared in London over the weekend. We are monitoring the situation extremely closely and are prepared to deal with any situations that may arise.

"We are working closely with community leaders to stand up for calm and together we can maintain trouble free streets.

"I want the public to continue to support the police and their communities and want to stress that speculative gossip and reporting is unhelpful and unwelcome."

The last sentence is interesting.

Because gossip seems the big issue here.

Gossip about what is in effect a shop-lifting flashmob attacking the city centre.

Let's be clear that any anticipated trouble will not be driven by ideology or politics but by teenage boys with no brains, wearing 'issues' of social deprivation, policing or race as an excuse for a scrap and vandalism.

The irony is that we have a commemoration of the Peterloo Massacre taking place this weekend. In August 1819, thousands of people gathered in Manchester to protest against a lack of representation. Fifteen of them died, but there was no looting. This was political, a protest by common people hoping to gain the vote.

The trouble flaring in Britain today is about gaining brands: Nike, iPad and so on.

If Manchester should be attacked, let's hope Greater Manchester Police is firm and positive in its response.

Let's hope the force leads the action not follows it, although it is under acute pressure itself from the recent cuts in its budget and workforce. But that shouldn't be an excuse for not taking the fight to rioting youths.

Meanwhile let's remember that teenagers and young adults across the country involved in this are a minority of a minority of a minority.

A fourteen-year-old child of a Manchester Confidential member of staff forwarded messages from his BBM on his Blackberry.

'Only idiots destroy their own city.'

'If you think you're hard join the army and fight in Afghanistan.'

'I'm not going to be part of this, fighting and hurting over trainers.'

He said: "The messages have all been about standing up to the rioters and not getting involved in this."

That's welcome.

That proves as stated above that this is all about a minority of a minority of a minority. And that not all young people are bad - a point that can easily get lost amid footage of burning buildings and smashed windows.

Still, our fourteen-year-old might be representative of teenagers, but he's not all of them. Others will have different agendas.

Another story on BBM is that there's a way to adapt your Blackberry so the police can't close down the messaging service.

Best thing might be to keep the British stiff upper lip and not let the little sods grind you down.

The police and the council are still maintaining that they are not aware of any planned disturbances. Some businesses are deciding to be cautious under their own steam.

That rumour mill eh?

You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield

So it begins

Fire On Market Street

Piccadilly Gardens

Regent Road Retail Park

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122 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.

AnonymousAugust 9th 2011.

It says on Facebook that Sainsburys and MacDonalds on Regent road are on fire. Is this true?

1 Response: Reply To This...

Mr R MillAugust 9th 2011.

Oh you silly Anon, read the article

AnonymousAugust 9th 2011.

McDonalds- sodding auto correct!

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