Football fans have described scenes of 'chaos' as thousands tried to leave Old Trafford football ground at the same time as police closed a nearby road following a crash.
Officers closed off a stretch of Talbot Road, just metres away from the stadium, at around 9.30pm last night (Tuesday) after a man was knocked down by a vehicle. He was rushed to hospital from the scene with serious injuries.
As the cordon was in place and investigations were carried out, thousands of football fans poured out of Old Trafford following Manchester United's match against Bournemouth. Several have described seeing huge crowds packing into a ginnel as people avoided the road closure and and police directed people away from the scene.
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Fans said people were able to walk right up to the cordon before being turned around by officers, which caused confusion and led to tightly-packed crowds down the road. One man, who was with his 14-year-old son at the time, said the scenes were 'quite scary' as he tried to make his way home from the stadium.
Describing how Greater Manchester Police handled the crowds, the man - who did not wish to be named - told the Manchester Evening News : "They [the police] blocked the road but wouldn’t let us walk past on the pavement for some reason. The Mecca Bingo is right next to the pavement so they made us walk down the side of it behind a metal fence.
"The gap along the building wasn’t very large at all, then there was no exit at the other end either so some men were pulling the bars apart and letting people through, women and children first. We left the ground about 10 minutes before the end so I imagine it got much worse after full time.
"I was with my 14 year old son so it was quite scary, there was younger children too. Everyone just wanted to get home."
Another fan, who has a season ticket at Manchester United, described the scenes as 'chaos'. He said "Me, like many fans took the route from Old Trafford past White City onto Trafford Bar where our car was parked on Seymour Grove.
"At no point was there any hint of disruption to our route until we came towards the Trafford Bar Hotel, when I started to notice people walking against the crowd. I said to my son that was odd, however, a bloke passed advising Trafford Bar was 'down'.
"I assumed he meant the tram stop and reasoned that's why people are walking back, at this point there still wasn't any police presence advising to turn around. As we passed Trafford Bar Hotel this is where I started to realise there was a bigger issue, I approached a policeman and asked what is going on and was told head back to White City.
"At this point there were many many people crowded in, I looked for a spot of space to the side so I could gather my bearings. I asked police officers and asked why on earth they had allowed all these people this far down when there was no intention of letting us past.
"I was ignored, I asked again, advising it was total lunacy, the response was 'we have now'. I said 'it's too late'.
"To the side there was what looked like a ginnel running past a building and lots of people were crowded in there with people climbing over the fences to push through. Me and my son walked back through the crowds and headed to Old Trafford Tram stop where we the headed down Ayres road and round onto Seymour Grove."
The man added that this was the first time he had felt 'totally uneasy' leaving the ground with his son. "It would have been easy for any child have been separated from parents or for someone to have been injured in the chaos", he said.
"I appreciate that the police had to react to a sudden incident but why did they not cut off the stream of people closer to White City where there is far greater accessible routes for people to divert to and avoid the mass gatherings we saw."
Another fan told the M.E.N how he saw people packed down a passageway. He said: "A lot ended up navigating their own route through the side of Mecca Bingo which led to a huge bottleneck of people, then pushing from the back caused aggro."
He added: "Hundreds if not thousands were making their way through, and police should have shut the road before they did, right at the scene. They easily could've done it at the junction further back down the road, to create an easy go around."
A spokesperson for GMP said the force's 'highest priority is caring for victims'. The spokesperson said: "During the initial response to a serious road traffic collision, GMP’s highest priority is caring for victims.
"Police officers are sometimes the first on scene and are often required to provide potentially life-saving first aid until blue-light colleagues arrive and take over. This life-saving work is completed alongside efforts to enable evidence preservation - which includes working with partner agencies to direct vehicles and pedestrians away from scenes.
"GMP is a learning organisation which is committed to providing outstanding service. When improvements are identified, a trusted debrief process is used to ensure they are implemented and inform the response to future incidents and emergencies.”
No further updates have been issued yet on the condition of the man who was injured in the crash. It has not been confirmed whether any arrests were made.
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