A 26 year old man has been arrested on suspicion of a bomb hoax after a backpack was left in Piccadilly Gardens, causing major disruption to Metrolink services through Manchester City Centre for several hours during the afternoon and evening of Friday 3rd May. A cordon was put round the scene from around 1400 until 2000 during which time no trams were able to serve either Market Street or Piccadilly Gardens.<\/p>\n
The backpack is believed to have been confirmed as \u201cnon-viable\u201d but for obvious reasons Greater Manchester Police took no chances whilst a full investigation took place putting the cordon into place for a prolonged period. Whilst it did cause major disruption to the public attempting to go about their business that is just a minor inconvenience when you think of the high profile nature of the potential incident.<\/p>\n
With the original city crossing closed to trams a revised service was in operation for several hours on Metrolink with all cross-city trams diverted via 2CC. This saw trams from Altrincham diverted to Victoria (instead of Piccadilly) and those from Bury to Deansgate-Castlefield (instead of Piccadilly). The Altrincham to Bury direct service went via 2CC whilst trams from Eccles terminated at Cornbrook and those from Ashton-under-Lyne running to Piccadilly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 26 year old man has been arrested on suspicion of a bomb hoax after a backpack was left in Piccadilly Gardens, causing major disruption to Metrolink services through Manchester City Centre for several hours during the afternoon and evening … Continue reading