Looting is rampant in Manchester city centre, as gangs of hooded yobs smash in shop windows and take whatever they can get their hands on.
Greater Manchester Police have locked down the main routes in and out of Piccadilly Gardens, yet gangs are still roaming the central gardens area and the bus stop, and looting the nearby shops.
Fashion store Cow has numerous windows smashed, and MM photographed youths reaching in and taking clothing before running off.
Moments before the image below, a masked teenager had filled up a rusksack full of clothing, and the youth below is about to help himself too.
LOOTING: A looter reaches into the broken window of fashion boutique ‘Cow’
One eyewitness who wished not to be named said: “It’s like we’ve landed in Baghdad. My bus home is cancelled and I’m stuck – I just want to get home. This place is really not safe for people to be out in.”
Mancunian Matters staff are stuck in their office block, after remaining at their computers following the rest of the building’s evacuation hours earlier – and we are hearing reports that other office workers are in a similar position across the city.
Other nearby shops are in a similar state and many bus shelters lie littered with glass. Windows to the buildings next door to MM also lie in pieces on the floor.
RAMPANT: Looting in the northern quarter results in Cash Generator’s metal shutters being ripped up before these riot police arrived on the scene
The northern quarter has been similarly hit, with smashed windows on various shops, and even the metal shutters to Cash Generator have been ripped up.
This comes after reports that Liam Gallagher’s fashion boutique on King Street was targeted, as well as Dawson’s music store on Portland Street, and Foot Asylum in Manchester Arndale.
BRICKED: Any window in site was deemed a target
Send your pictures of the rioting here.
More related stories:
Piccadilly Gardens in lock down as rioters smash and loot Manchester shops
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Greater Manchester MPs condem riots and looting
