No charges after prank in parlour
THEIR prank saw six fire engines called, along with police cars and ambulances and an evacuation of terrified staff and customers.
Despite that, the teenagers who sparked panic at a city centre ice cream parlour will NOT face criminal charges, police have said.
The Italian Gelato Co on Portland Street, in Manchester city centre, was evacuated when customers started coughing on Tuesday night.
Initial reports came in as ‘gas being set off’ but it was later discovered the ‘unknown substance’ was perfume teenagers were spraying at each other.
Due to the nature of the initial report police, specialist firefighters and paramedics were called to the parlour.
A fire service spokesman confirmed several teams were sent to the scene shortly after 7pm, initially to reports of a possible ‘hazardous material.’
Two crews from Manchester Central, two from Bury, one from Moss Side, one from Hyde, and a specialist unit were all sent to the ice cream parlour. The shop was evacuated and specialist officers carried out a survey of the restaurant. The teenagers involved have not been arrested but will be dealt with through voluntary attendance at a police station to help the police with their investigation. A tweet from the Greater Manchester Police city centre account said: “Officers from our team dealt with this last night. “It shows how people don’t sometimes think about the potential consequences of ‘larking about’ particularly in light of the current terrorism threat.” Izzy Baig, owner of the cafe, got a call from her manager after the incident to explain what had happened. She told the M.E.N on Tuesday : “We had three teenagers and they sprayed some kind of gas, or liquid, into the restaurant. Everyone started coughing and we had to evacuate the store and call police. “In the end, it was some kind of perfume, but because of the smell everyone started coughing. “They (the teenagers) had started being silly and spraying it on each other. “If they had sprayed it and stayed where they were it would have been fine, but they ran outside which caused the alarm. “Staff were thinking it looked suspicious because they ran away, so called the police.” Tweet from Greater Manchester Police