‘I’ve done a terrorist attack’
Mental patient on day release stabbed waitress and caused chaos at shopping centre
A MENTAL health patient caused ‘terror’ in the Arndale centre after stabbing a Nando’s waitress then claiming he’d planted bombs in the toilets.
Ali Algdaner, 27, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, had been allowed to leave a mental health unit at Salford Royal Hospital before heading to the shopping centre.
Armed police raced to the Arndale, and after they detained him Algdaner said: “It’s a terrorist plot, I’ve done a terrorist attack.”
Algdaner said he had planted bombs in the shopping centre’s toilets, but no such devices were found.
The waitress suffered minor injuries and was left ‘traumatised’. Now Algdaner has been sentenced
to a hospital order, to remain under the care of doctors indefinitely.
Judge Anthony Cross QC said Algdaner could ‘justifiably said to have caused genuine terror’.
The judge also paid tribute to the ‘remarkable bravery’ of two chefs who tried to apprehend Algdaner.
At the time of the incident, on October 18 last year, Algdaner was an inpatient at the Meadowbrook mental health unit at Salford Royal.
Prosecuting, Richard Orme said he had been allowed to leave the unit for the day, and had been with his mother.
She said that at about 8pm, he had gone to the shops but did not return.
Judge Cross said: “It is not clear whether or not his absence had been reported by the mother or reported by Meadowbrook.
“It is, if right, a matter of concern.” At about 8.50pm, Algdaner walked into Nando’s in the Arndale wearing a hospital top and trousers and picked up several knives and forks from a pot used to store cutlery, before moving towards a 20-year-old waitress and striking her to the back with the cutlery. He then went into nearby Bella Italia and into the shopping mall area where a woman was using a cash machine.
Someone shouted ‘watch out, knife’ before she ran from him.
The shopping centre was evacuated, before GMP arrived and found Algdaner still holding the cutlery knives and ‘muttering to himself’.
He lay down on the floor after an officer shouted ‘armed police’ and said: “It’s a terrorist plot, I’ve done a terrorist attack.”
Officers searched the shopping centre after Algdaner claimed to have planted bombs.
Algdaner, of Talbot Street, Eccles, pleaded guilty to ABH, possessing a bladed article, affray and communicating false information with intent.
Detective Constable Annabel Lewis, of GMP’s City of Manchester Central Division, said: “Algander was, and remains, a danger to the public and we are satisfied that today’s verdict keeps the streets of Manchester a safer place until he is deemed fit enough to return to society.”