West Midlands Police have said that a major, multi-service manhunt in the Perry Barr and Erdington region was launched out of ‘genuine concern’ but ‘turned out to be inaccurate’.
The manhunt, which included West Midlands Police’s land and air teams, and the fire service, was launched sometime prior to 6.25pm, when the force urged residents of the region to ‘be vigilant’ following reports of a man acting suspiciously.
Dozens of reports of armed police, helicopters, and national police air service planes flooded social media following the alert, with West Midlands Police saying at the time that they had a ‘large police presence’ in the Erdington area.
‘Inaccurate’
Now, in an update provided to the Express & Star, the force has said that the report was proved to be a ‘false alarm’ that was made with ‘good intent’.