Family and friends were left “devastated” today after a police officer was shot dead on a training exercise.
Tonight his wife, brother and parents are breaking the tragic news to other relatives.
The officer was killed after suffering a gun shot wound to the chest at about 11.30am today while on the exercise.
Police cars and an ambulance rushed to the scene and the officer was taken to North Manchester General Hospital but doctors could not save him and he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
It is not clear if the officer was shot accidentally by one of his own colleagues and police refused to answer specific questions about the incident.
An investigation is underway.
The “highly regarded” officer, who has not yet been named, was taking part in a pre-planned exercise involving firearms officers from Greater Manchester Police.
They were using a huge disused warehouse, known locally as the Sharp building, in Newton Heath, in the north of the city, to conduct the exercise.
It was the former distribution centre for Sharp, the electronics giant, which used to sponsor Manchester United.
The site is heavily shielded by trees and a railway track and away from local housing.
A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police would not comment on whether officers used live or blank bullets, or both on the training exercises.
However police sources said live rounds are used in some exercises, when armed response officers practice ‘hard-stop’ tactics to shoot out the wheels of cars used by known armed criminals they are arresting.
It is not known if this was the training exercise being practised when the officer was fatally shot.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told MPs: “The whole House will be saddened to learn of the tragic death today of a police officer during a training exercise with Greater Manchester Police.
“This demonstrates the dangers that police officers face on our behalf.”
PA