..Two inmates are on the run in Manchester after they were sprung from a prison van by an armed gang.

The prisoners were "taken out" of the vehicle by a number of "armed masked men", Greater Manchester Police said.

Officers were called to Trinity Way following reports of a jail van being attacked shortly before 8.30am.

The gang made off in a Saab, which was found abandoned in Barrow Street in Islington, Salford, a short time later.

A security guard was taken to hospital, but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Detective Sergeant Paul Copplestone said: "We are sure that this incident was witnessed by many people at a very busy time of the morning.

"The Saab was driven off towards the M602 motorway.

"We would urge witnesses to contact us."

:: Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0161 872 5050 or they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 .

More to follow...
... Source

sounds like something out of a

would it be too obvious to say look at the escapees histories and who they're known to be associated with?

Detective copplestone best get his ass into gear, the public aren't going to like this hahaha, I take it the prison vans are still ran by group 4 then? Hahaha!

MERSEYSIDE Police are appealing for information after two men were sprung from a prison van by an armed gang.

The pair have been named this afternoon as Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes.

Both men, aged 25, were on their way to Liverpool Crown Court where they are on trial when the security van they were in was attacked by armed men on Trinity Way in Manchester shortly after 8.30am on Monday.

The men, from Liverpool, stood accused of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to commit criminal damage with intent to endanger life.

They were taken out of the security van by "a number of armed, masked men", police said.

The gang made off in a Saab, which was found abandoned in Barrow Street in Islington, Salford, a short time later.

One security guard was taken to hospital but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Downes, of no fixed address, and Bradley, of Altfinch Close, Stockbridge Village, Merseyside, were partway through the trial with a number of other co-accused.

Officers are appealing for the public's assistance in tracing the two - but would urge anyone who knows of their whereabouts not to approach them.

Merseyside Police are working with colleagues in Greater Manchester Police to trace them.

Anyone who has any information or who has seen Kirk Bradley or Anthony Downes, since 8.30am this morning, is asked to contact 0151 777 5699 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Source

Monday 12th November 2007 <-----

A young mother was "executed" because of a 12-year-old grudge against her partner, a court has heard.
Lucy Hargreaves, 22, from Liverpool, was shot and set on fire in a revenge attack against her boyfriend Gary Campbell, the prosecution alleged.

Liverpool Crown Court heard he had been a passenger in a stolen car which crashed killing the four-year-old brother of one of the defendants.

Kirk Bradley, 21, and Anthony Downes, 20, from Huyton-with-Roby deny murder.

Anthony Downes' brother was killed in the car crash in 1993.

Miss Hargreaves was asleep on the living room sofa at her home in Walton, when three masked men armed with a sawn-off shotgun broke into the house in August 2005.

She was shot twice in the stomach and once in the head before the duvet cover she was sleeping under was covered in petrol and set alight.

Petrol was also poured around the entrance and stairs of the property to block any escape for those upstairs.


It was an event conducted quite deliberately and in as cold-blooded a way as can be imagined
Gordon Cole QC, Prosecution
Mr Campbell, who had been asleep upstairs with the couple's youngest daughter Faye, then aged nine months, was able to escape the fire after jumping with the child through a first floor window.

After taking the baby to a neighbour's property, he ventured back into the burning house and dragged Miss Hargreaves out.

But she had already died of her wounds.

Downes, 20, of Huyton, Merseyside, and Kirk Bradley, 21, also of Huyton, deny murder.

Merseyside police have named Kevin Parle, 26, of no fixed address, as their third suspect. Parle has never been found.

Gordon Cole QC, said to the jury: "It may be that it was thought to be Gary Campbell who was asleep under the duvet on the sofa and therefore she was not the intended victim.

"Or it maybe that they realised it wasn't Campbell and they carried on in some form of retribution.

"Whatever the answer, we say that those three men forced their way into the house and shot Lucy Hargreaves in a way that amounts to an execution."

He added: "It was an event conducted quite deliberately and in as cold-blooded a way as can be imagined, with the deliberate setting of fire which probably had the intention of killing anybody else in the house."

A third defendant, Adam McNally, 18, of Norris Green, Liverpool, denies stealing the getaway car used by the killers.

The case continues.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7091076.stm