Armed police ‘completely surrounded’ a tower block in Newton Heath in an incident this afternoon.

Officers arrived in around nine vans at Shackleton Court shortly after 4.30pm on Monday.

Eyewitnesses say officers stood holding rifles at the bottom of the flats - but a GMP spokesman said it was an ‘ongoing incident’ and did not elaborate further on why officers were there.

One woman, who lives in the flats and wishes to remain anonymous, said: “We heard sirens at around 4.40pm and it then went quiet so we thought they had gone to a different place.

“I then went out to the shop around 20 minutes later and there were nine police vans and around 20 police officers holding rifles. They were surrounding the whole tower complex.It was really scary.

“I walked past the officers and asked what was happening but they wouldn’t say anything.

“There were lots of people on the streets around the flats looking at what was going on.

“The police must still be investigating because there are still two police cars here now.

“It’s strange because we never heard any shouting or noise before the police arrived.”

Another eyewitness, who lives nearby said: “It was crazy. There were loads of police.

“It looked like they were storming in to get someone. It was quite worrying.”

Another nearby resident said: “We’ve no idea what it was about but there was an armed police unit here as well as regular police.”

A GMP spokesman said: “It is an ongoing incident. It is nothing for people to worry about.”

Manchester Evening News has contacted GMP for a further comment.