Manchester taxi carjacked at knifepoint by man on the run

Manchester taxi carjacked at knifepoint by man on the run from earlier traffic collision.

Greater Manchester Police are continuing to investigate the theft of the taxi that occurred on Regent Road in Salford at around 9:20pm on Friday 16 February 2024.

Before this, an initial incident was reported of a vehicle travelling at speed that resulted in a four-vehicle road traffic collision. Thankfully injuries suffered by those at the scene were not life-threatening.

As the offender left on foot, nearby a taxi was then taken violently, with the driver threatened at knifepoint on the main road, receiving injuries that were also thankfully not life-threatening, and told to hand over the keys before heading towards the City Centre.

With district officers managing the scene, GMP’s Specialist Operations branch scoured the area for the suspect and vehicle.

Later that evening, at around 11pm it was stopped down in the West Midlands on the M42 after being sighted on the M6. A 29-year-old man was then arrested on suspicion of robbery and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He is in the process of being transferred to GMP custody for questioning.

Chief Inspector Simon Ashcroft, of GMP’s Salford district, said: “This is understandably a terrifying ordeal for those involved last night, but after a swift response by our dedicated local officers and the support of the wider force, we were not only able to manage the scene effectively, we also detained the suspect with assistance from colleagues in another force before any further harm could be caused.

“I hope this result shows that we will use all the resources available to us to detect and detain offenders quickly who are intent on causing unnecessary harm to innocent members of the public.

“As we continue to investigate to bring justice, if anyone has any further information in relation to this incident, or footage including dashcam, doorbell or CCTV, they can do so by calling 101 quoting incident 3337 of 16/02/2024.”