Five people were being treated for gunshot wounds in hospitals in Rochdale and Oldham, Greater Manchester, last night as police surrounded a third man in a warehouse after a major shooting incident in north-west England involving a high-speed car chase and "drive-by" shootings.
Two men were arrested yesterday afternoon, and late last night, after a siege which lasted nearly five hours, a third man was also arrested by police in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
The events unfolded after Lancashire police officers became suspicious of a group of men driving a car near a service station south of Junction 33 on the M6 motorway near Lancaster at 1.20 p.m. yesterday. A high-speed pursuit began, the car sped down the M61 motorway towards Bolton and shots were fired at the police. Greater Manchester Police took over the pursuit and sent a helicopter to track the car while the chase continued along the motorway.
As the men made their way towards Bolton and then into the town of Horwich, the drama took another twist when they abandoned their car, hijacked a light blue BMW and took the 27-year-old woman driver hostage. While the BMW was being pursued towards Bury and on into Rochdale by police patrol cars, motorway units and armed response units, one of the men inside began shooting indiscriminately at police officers and passers-by.
Eventually, the chase came to an end in Rochdale town centre when police rammed the car and it hit a lamp-post, but not before more gunshots were fired at people nearby. The woman hostage was released uninjured and two men were arrested.
One 51-year-old man was shot in the right arm in the Rochdale Road area, on the outskirts of Rochdale, in one of three separate shooting incidents during the car chase. At one point, a 75-year-old man was shot in the knee as he stood at a bus-stop outside a supermarket in Rochdale town centre. One man said the bullet appeared to pierce the man's leg and "go straight through". Two more people were shot during the incident in the town - one 46-year-old man was hit in the right leg and a 31-year-old man was shot in the right thigh.
Another victim is believed to have been riding his bicycle when the gunman shot him in the leg.
One witness, Mr Martin Rhodes, said he heard police sirens and a police helicopter overhead and then four gunshots. "From what we gathered, the man was leaning out of the passenger side shooting at people," he said. "It's shocking because Rochdale is usually a quiet little place. Nothing really happens."
Mr Bill Sheperd, who was driving a fork-lift truck nearby when the chase ended, said the scene was "just like a Rambo film". He heard gunshots and saw police officers pin a man down on the road. "I think the police had rammed the car. I heard three shots but I couldn't say where they came from. Then I saw another man pinned to the ground," he said.
Mr Robert Clegg of Rochdale Health Care NHS Trust, said last night that none of the injuries was life-threatening, but the men had been taken into theatre. A 72-year-old woman was also taken to hospital in Rochdale last night suffering from chest pains after witnessing the incident.