Police raid Manchester hotel after traffic incident involving child

Armed police and ambulances were dispatched to the Ibis Budget Hotel in Manchester after a child was fatally injured in a traffic incident there and witnesses reported disturbing scenes and a woman screaming. Police are now investigating the incident.

The police operation has been underway in the Ibis Budget Hotel in Salford Quays in Greater Manchester.

Armed police reportedly entered the building at around 9:30pm local time, The Manchester Evening News reported, citing witnesses. Some 15 police cars and at least three ambulances were seen outside the hotel.

Police told The Manchester Evening News the incident involved a traffic road collision where a child was hurt.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed on Twitter that a child had died in the incident, while not revealing any details of the deadly collision.

“Police responding to collision involving young boy near Ibis hotel in Salford. Boy has sadly died at the scene. Enquiries ongoing,” police wrote.

Earlier, reports said a woman covered in blood was seen on the scene and that a 17-month-old child had been hit.

Police said in a statement that they responded to reports of a “serious collision involving a child in a car park on Trafford Road,” adding that an investigation by Greater Manchester Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU) is ongoing.

A disturbing video showing the scene before ambulances arrived surfaced on social media. In the clip, a woman can be heard screaming hysterically, and there is what appears to be a child crying. Following the news of a child’s death, the footage sparked a debate on Twitter about whether the person who first posted it online should take it down.

Manchester police have been on heightened alert since a terrorist attack at Manchester Arena packed with thousands of concert-goers on May 22. A suicide bomber detonated an IED minutes after American pop star Ariana Grande’s performance ended, as people rushed to the exits. Twenty-three people, mostly Grande's teenage fans and their relatives, were killed in the attack. Some 250 people were injured.

READ MORE: 5 terrorist attacks thwarted in recent months, some ‘minutes away’ – Met Police commissioner

In July, London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told BBC that law enforcement had managed to foil five terrorist plots in the last three to four months, noting that some of them were “minutes away” from being carried out.

In addition to this, she said police detained “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of radicalized youth who were promoting terrorist ideas or mulling an attack, adding that the problem of “homegrown” terrorists is a growing issue of concern to police.