A dad who found himself at the centre of a major armed police response while exercising at a park in a weighted vest has spoken of the moment he was ordered to the ground as snipers took aim.
The man, who is in his 40s, was pictured on his knees with his hands on his head amid the drama on Friday (March 20). Speaking exclusively to the Manchester Evening News in the wake of the incident at Mandley Park, he said: “I said to the police ‘it’s better safe than sorry’.”
The incident unfolded following reports of a ‘suspicious male’ at the Higher Broughton park at around 11.52am. The alarm was raised when people spotted the man in a vest, carrying what some feared was a cable or ‘wires’.
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Panic spread, with wild speculation quickly flooding social media. False claims the man was wearing a ‘suicide bomb’, ‘bomb vest’ or ‘pack’ were rife. Dozens of images and video clips appeared online within minutes.
Greater Manchester Police later confirmed it was a ‘false alarm’ and that the man was wearing a ‘weighted gym vest’ and carrying a skipping rope while exercising. There is an outdoor gym at the park.
The man with his hands on his head at Mandley Park(Image: X)
Speaking on the condition of anonymity over fears for his safety, the man told the Manchester Evening News: “I was scared when I heard police shouting. They said to me ‘lie down’. I didn’t think it was for me, but there were no other people around me.
“One said ‘shoot him if he moves’, or something like that. The colleague was saying to the other ‘shoot him’ a few times. I lie down, just do whatever they tell me and I see a helicopter over my head.”
The father, who moved from Albania to the UK 25 years ago, said he was using his skipping rope and vest as he exercised as usual. He said he wears the weighted vest ‘everywhere’ after being urged to get fit by his doctor. Mandley Park is one of his favoured workout spots, he said.
“I wear it everywhere I go,” he added. “I have diabetes type two and a problem with my heart. The doctor told me to work out and exercise because I was overweight.
Armed police took aim at the man(Image: X)
“So I train. I go to the gym, I go to the park just to exercise. But yesterday was one of them [days]. I wear that vest everywhere when I exercise. It’s not just me, I see many people using that vest.”
The area is home to one of the country’s biggest Jewish communities. Within moments, images and footage of the man being surrounded by armed officers spread on social media, with scores of false captions.
The man said he kept calm as best he could while cooperating with officers. He added: “Somebody has called the police, they were worried that I had got a vest. I was skipping at this point.
“The police were thinking it was a bomb or something… whatever the person that called them had said. They told me to leave my phone on the floor and lie down. I did whatever they told me to do.
The man was told to lie on the ground(Image: X)
“They asked me to take the vest off, I took it off and moved to the right side. They put me in handcuffs. They took me to the police station and kept me in a couple of hours, then I was free to go.”
The man at the centre of the storm said he understood why concerns were raised in the heart of Salford’s Jewish community, around a mile from the scene of last October’s attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall.
“I said to the police, ‘it’s better safe than sorry’,” he said. “I’m not blaming the police, they were very nice with me. I was being nice with them, we work together. That’s why we pay our taxes so we keep ourselves safe.
“Because it’s a Jewish area, I think people were scared, but I go there all the time. I go to the Jewish shops, I go there for my kids, they have nice food. I walk around here for an hour, an hour-and-a-half, something like that.”
Police walk through Mandley Park after the incident(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
GMP confirmed no further action is being taken against the manl. The force said the incident ‘was a false alarm and there is no threat to the wider community’.
The man added: “It is what it is. Sometimes it happens, you know.”
Members of the Jewish community thanked police for their swift response. A spokesperson for the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester said: “Thankfully, this has been clarified as a false alarm and there is no threat to our community.
“This incident is indicative of the levels of anxiety currently being faced by Jewish people across the world. We are once again grateful for the exemplary response by GMP and the professionalism of the Community Security Trust. We are fortunate to be able to rely on these two amazing organisations to keep us safe.”