Dramatic moment parent tackles knifeman to the ground outside school

Dramatic moment a brave parent tackles a knifeman to the ground after spotting him ‘waving meat cleaver’ at primary school

• The incident took place outside St George’s Primary School in Tyldesley, Wigan
• Dramatic photos showed the alleged knifeman being pinned to the ground
• Children were kept in classrooms and parents in the hall while officers swarmed the scene at 3.10pm on Friday. Police confirmed a man was arrested
• Residents said the man was heard shouting outside the school all day

Parents were forced into action on Friday when they tackled an armed suspect who was reportedly ‘waving a meat cleaver’ outside a primary school.

Video from the scene before the intervention showed the man holding what appeared to be a large blade. Dramatic photos later showed the man being pinned down outside St George’s Primary School in Tyldesley, Wigan.

Children were kept in classrooms and parents in the hall while officers swarmed the scene at 3.10pm, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Parents from nearby Tyldesley Primary School were asked to collect their children due to the police incident.

Pictured: Dramatic photos show the alleged knifeman being pinned down outside St George’s Primary School in Tyldesley, Wigan, on Friday afternoon

Before parents intervened, video (pictured) from the scene showed the man holding what appeared to be a large blade – possibly a meat cleaver

Pictured: An unnamed man is seen in a video brandishing what appears to be a knife outside of a primary school in Wigan on Friday 

Residents said the man could be heard shouting and making threats on Darlington Street and surrounding roads.

He then walked towards St George’s Primary School with a ‘meat cleaver’, according to witnesses, before parents and passer-bys wrestled him to the ground.

One man, who intervened during the stand-off with the armed suspect, said: ‘I saw him walking towards the school with a meat cleaver.

‘He was making verbal threats, the lads were surrounding him and then that’s when they cornered him and someone wrestled him to the ground.

‘He’s been at it all day rambling on, but never in my life did I think he would go to the school with a meat cleaver.’

Another parent, who was the first to call police, said: ‘It was an accident waiting to happen. Today he sounded very distressed and he’s been using foul language all day. He just sounded incredibly upset and distressed throughout the day.

Children were kept in classrooms and parents in the hall while officers swarmed the scene at 3.10pm, the Manchester Evening News reported. Pictured: A police car is seen outside the school on Friday

‘You could hear and see him from the back garden brandishing knives. My husband who works from home ran down the stairs and said he’s on the front going into school with a meat cleaver, and I was just on the phone talking to the police straight away and talking through to them until they got here.

‘The teachers acted very quickly and got everybody in the school hall, three men were trying to calm him down, but he was very, very agitated and then he moved further in and then it was seven men who were watching what he was doing and then one of them actually wrestled him to the floor.

‘He was very distressed. If he’d got one of them kids it would have been horrific.’

One parent who also heard the man ‘screaming’ during the day said: ‘When I went to pick up my child, we got put in the hall and the kids were in their classrooms. We were in there for an hour or so.’

The parents who wrestled the suspect to the ground were hailed ‘heroes’. One wrote: ‘Thank you so much for keeping my children safe You’re heroes’. Another added: ‘Thanking all concerned, especially the heroes who risked their own lives to help.’

A GMP spokesman said: ‘At around 3.10pm on Friday 15 July, we were called to reports of a man with a bladed weapon at a primary school on Darlington Street, Tyldesley. Officers attended the scene and a man has been arrested.’ 

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