Rochdale knife attacks: Two boys among six held over gang feud

Six people, including two boys, have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder by police investigating a gang feud.

Officers raided seven addresses in the Moston, Ardwick, Blackley, Newton Heath and Openshaw areas of Manchester earlier, following knife attacks on a man and a boy in Rochdale in December.

Two 18-year-old men and one man aged 20, a 19-year-old woman and two boys, aged 17, were arrested.

Machetes and a crossbow were seized.

The raids follow a stabbing of a 17-year-old boy in Tweedale Street, Rochdale on 17 December and a knife attack on a 21-year-old man on the same street eleven days later.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said officers also seized a stab-proof vest and an amount of cannabis.

Det Insp Karl Ward said the raids followed an “extensive amount of investigative work” following a “concerning trend of serious assaults recently”, particularly in the Freehold area of Rochdale.

He added that anyone with information about the attacks should get in touch with police.