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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent

Man carrying home his gardening tools arrested by armed police in Manchester

Samuel Rowe: he is 35 with dark wavy hair and stands holding a trug filled with vegetables in a pretty garden; there are pots of flowers on shelving on the brick wall, a flowerbed by paving stones, and antique-style table and chairs. He wears light tan trousers with a tool belt plus patterned dark blue shirt.
‘I kept explaining that they’re gardening tools,’ said Samuel Rowe, photographed here in his garden in Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

A man who had returned home from his allotment with a trug of vegetables and gardening tools strapped to his belt was arrested by armed police, after a member of the public said they had seen “a man wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife”.

Samuel Rowe, 35, who works as a technical manager at a theatre, had come back from his allotment in Manchester earlier this month and decided to trim his hedge with one of his tools, a Japanese garden sickle, when police turned up on his doorstep.

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