{"id":74882,"date":"2025-05-04T22:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/74882\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:08:09","slug":"armed-police-called-to-greater-manchester-park-after-youths-playing-football-make-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/74882\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed police called to Greater Manchester park after youths playing football make discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two youths approached officers on patrol in Derker<\/p>\n

22:05, 04 May 2025Updated 22:05, 04 May 2025<\/p>\n

\"ForensicsForensics examined the item and deemed it to be an imitation firearm(Image: GMP)<\/p>\n

A park in Oldham was taped off by police on Sunday evening (May 4) after a group of children playing football found a suspected gun in a carrier bag.<\/p>\n

Police on patrol were approached by two youths around 7pm to Waterhead Park. They had been playing football on a basketball court when their ball entered the bushes.<\/p>\n

The pair they discovered what appeared to be the weapon in a Smyths Toys bag for life. Specialist armed officers attended the scene and later confirmed that the weapon was an imitation firearm.<\/p>\n

Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

A scene was put in place around the park, with forensics also seen examining the item. Following a spate of recent firearms disputes in the area, Operation Vulcan teams in GMP are working alongside the Serious Organised Crime Group to target offenders operating locally.<\/p>\n

There will also be an increased police presence in the local area over the coming days, the force said.<\/p>\n

Inspector Dan Cullum from Operation Vulcan said: \u201dThroughout our proactive operation so far, we\u2019ve made over 55 arrests, and we are continuing to identify individuals who for too long have acted with impunity to ensure they are brought to justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminals know we are in the area, and that we\u2019re executing regular warrants to root out the crime. We know that criminals can often store illicit items in public places as a way of keeping themselves away from the overt crime, and covering their tracks, but we will always seek to use all resources available to identify who is responsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to thank the community for their support so far with this, we know that news of this nature may cause alarm, but I want to reassure local residents that we will follow every line of enquiry to locate who placed this item in the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, on this occasion it was not a viable firearm. However, if the circumstances were different, and had a child found a firearm, it could very well have had fatal consequences, so I\u2019d like to thank those members of the public for approaching our officers this evening us as soon as they located it. We do not underestimate the gravity that organised crime has on our communities, and we are treating this recovery with the utmost severity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the coming days, you will continue to see my team in the area as they conduct further enquiries and offer reassurance. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to speak to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d also like to appeal to the community or anyone who has been in the area over the last few days and weeks. Have you seen any suspicious activity? Or perhaps identified an individual who has been frequenting the park with this distinctive blue bag. If so, please come forward. No matter how small the information may seem, it could be crucial to the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have any information about this firearm or would like to report suspicious activity in the area over the last few days, call police on 101 quoting log 2653 of 04\/05.25.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two youths approached officers on patrol in Derker 22:05, 04 May 2025Updated 22:05, 04 May 2025 Forensics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[28054,12,1286,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-74882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-derker","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-oldham","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114451847753770978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}