ATTACKS PUT A Gangland shootings in city are at 10-year high and locals fear return of... GUN

They know it’s not a car misfiring. Nor fireworks.

It is the haunting sound of gunfire – one they grew used to during a bloody turf war that saw their city branded Gunchester.

And now, two decades after Manchester got the nickname, gun crime is on the rise again.

Figures uncovered by the Sunday People found the highest level of shootings in ten years. There have been 74 since last April – up from 62 in the previous year and the sixth consecutive annual rise.

At the centre of it all is a deadly battle to control the trade in drugs.

And searing austerity cuts and unemployment woes have made youngsters easy prey for gangs.

Former armed robber Jason Coghlan, 50, warned: “A lot of these shootings are tit-for-tat. You shoot at me, I’ll shoot back.

“But where’s it going to stop? They just point and shoot, they don’t care if someone gets in the way. They’re not worried about the police. It’s street justice.”

Locals dread a return to the near-daily bloodshed of the 1990s and early 2000s – when gunfire rang out around suburbs like Moss Side, Hulme and Longsight.

Hatred

Insiders say the revival in hatred stems from a six-year feud between a mob dubbed the A-team and a rival faction in Salford.

It led to the murder of Paul “Mr Big” Massey in July 2015.

Since then there has been a steady upsurge in shootings. A seven-yearold boy and his mother were hit on their doorstep three months later.

The worst hit area is Salford, which is home to the gleaming BBC offices at the sprawling Media City complex, built with £430million of regeneration cash.

There have been 25 shootings there since January last year. Attacks in nearby towns – three in Wigan last year and one in Leigh – are also linked to the Salford dispute.

Massey, 55, was killed in cold blood by Mark Fellows, the so-called “Iceman”. He fired 18 bullets with an Uzi submachine gun.

Three years later he murdered Massey’s associate John Kinsella, 53, on Merseyside.

Fellows, 39, is now serving a life sentence. But there was always going to be someone to take his place.

Since last Christmas, shots have been fired at a house in Pendleton. Then two hitmen blasted a rival in the legs at his home in Winton, while a house in Salford was sprayed with bullets. A shotgun was then used to pepper a home in Higher Broughton and just last weekend three shots were fired at a car in Weaste, a suburb of Salford.

Scared locals fear being caught in the crossfire.

One man who lives close to the latest shooting said: “I know police have limited resources but shootings like this are endangering innocent lives. This is getting out of hand.”

Police are exasperated at the rising tide of violence. Supt Andrew Sidebotham says: “The latest incident is likely to be part of the organised crime issues in Salford. The A-team, Anti A-team feud is extremely complex with factions changing frequently.”

Other shocking incidents in the past year include a dad being shot in his car at traffic lights in Weaste – while his 11-year-old son sat by his side. And last July, in Pendleton, there was a gunfight between a man on a motorbike and