News

Police issue statement following ‘concerning’ incident at Manchester Central Mosque

GMP has not declared it a terrorist incident at this time.

Emily Sergeant - 26th February 2026

A police statement and update has been issued following an incident at Manchester Central Mosque earlier this week.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed that officers were called at around 8:40pm on Tuesday evening (24 February 2026) to reports of concern from security staff at the mosque about a white man in a high-vis jacket carrying ‘a bag with an axe inside’.

The man in question had reportedly claimed to be in the mosque to do work on the building, but staff had no knowledge of this, and so they acted on their suspicions and called police.

There was no suggestion that the man made any threats or confronted members of the congregation, according to GMP, however the force says it understands the alarm that this ‘suspicious and concerning’ behaviour caused for the public.

“We quickly responded to the scene where we searched the suspect, arrested him, and seized weapons – including an axe, a knife and class B drugs,” Assistant Chief Constable, John Webster, said in his statement.

Although at this point his identity remains unconfirmed, GMP has revealed that the suspect is a white man in his 50s, who has been arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon and class B drugs, and detectives are yet to decipher what the circumstances or intent, if any, are around this incident.

ACC Webster continued: “I know this uncertainty can cause concern, but it is key that we have the time to question the suspect and speak to as many witnesses as possible to understand the nature of this incident. To ensure we are appropriately exploring every line of enquiry, we are working with detectives from Counter Terrorism Policing North West, but it has not been declared a terrorist incident.

“We are taking this very seriously and have increased patrols around mosques at what we know is a really important time for Muslim communities as they come together during Ramadan.”

On top of this, police say they are also reviewing ‘all available CCTV and body-worn video footage’ in an attempt to identify a second man who was reported as acting suspiciously in the mosque at the same time as the suspect, and are calling on the Greater Manchester public for help.

The man is described as black, approximately in his late 40s, with an athletic build and short stubbled facial hair, and was wearing a grey hoody with the hood up, a navy blue jacket with that hood also up, blue tracksuit bottoms, and white trainers at the time.

Read more:

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• Independent review into police actions during Manchester synagogue terror attack finds ‘no misconduct’
• Police granted extra time to question four people over Manchester synagogue terror attack

Can you help identify this man? An image is expected to be released soon, but in the meantime, anyone with any information is urged to contact police, quoting incident 3279 of 24 February 2026, or you can also call 101 or use the LiveChat function on the GMP website.

Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Featured Image – GMP