Manchester bombing cops arrest terror suspect as police say they’ve found ‘very important’ items during raids across the city and made ‘significant’ arrests
PICTURES show the dramatic moment a Manchester bomb terror suspect is arrested at gunpoint in Nuneaton.
He was snared after fleeing a property in the Warwickshire town on Wednesday night.
A witness reported hearing cops screaming, "Get down, get down" after chasing the suspect, in his 20s, about half a mile.
Photographs taken by a neighbour show the suspect lying on the ground surrounded by specialist officers and forensics agents on the corner of Abbey Street and Meadow Street.
The dramatic snaps come as Greater Manchester chief constable Ian Hopkins described the eight arrests made over the last 24 hours as "significant"
He also said some of the items seized in raids are "very important".
"I want to assure people that the arrests we have made are significant and initial searches of premises have revealed items that we believe are very important to the investigation", he added.
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A witness to the Nuneaton arrest said: ";I rushed outside and three officers jumped out of an unmarked police car.
"The man looked like he was Arab and in his early 20s. He was face down and wasn't moving. The other officers were pointing their guns at him.
"A minute later four more police cars raced up and officers started searching the area.
"A police van showed up and officers wearing forensic suits got out. They walked over to the man and rolled him over slowly and started patting him down.
Officers then dressed him in a white forensic boiler suit before bundling him into a police van.
Police were seen searching an address on Earls Road this morning.
It is home to Libyan-born Naser Elshetwi, who has five children aged between seven and 21.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph earlier this month, he told of being shot and injured by failed kidnappers in his home country in 2016.
He said he came to the UK twenty years ago and was granted asylum by then Home Secretary David Blunkett.
Two more arrests followed early this morning in Manchester in connection with Monday night's suicide attack.
Greater Manchester Police said one of the men was detained after searches were carried out at an address in the Withington area yesterday morning.
A large-scale police raid involving the army bomb squad took place in the Hulme area later.
The arrests take the total number of men in custody to eight after a series of raids.
A woman had also been arrested in Manchester during an armed raid on a block of flats on Tuesday night. She was later released without charge.
The arrests come after a controlled explosion was carried out in the Moss Side area of the city earlier yesterday morning.
Locals reported hearing a "loud bang" in the south of the city centre at around 1.45am on Thursday.
The force said in a statement: "This morning we have been carrying out searches at an address in the Moss Side area during which a controlled explosion took place.
"These searches are connected to Monday's attack on the Manchester Arena, but this is a fast, ongoing investigation and we are keeping an open mind at this stage."
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The explosion was heard in the neighbouring areas of Rusholme and Fallowfield, with concerned locals taking to social media.
One wrote: "Does anyone know if the loud bang heard at 1:45amish this morning in/near Moss Side & Rusholme was an un/controlled explosion?"
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