Watch Hale photographer’s extraordinary video of brazen city centre armed robbery

A Hale photographer has spoken of the extraordinary moment he filmed a brazen armed robbery in the centre of Manchester today.

Daniel Killoran saw the whole incident unfold at 2.50pm this afternoon, when two men carried out a heist at Arthur Kay & Bro jewellers on New Market by St Ann’s Square.

His 17-second video shows a man revving a green motorbike while an accomplice shatters a window at the store, which has traded from the corner of the Royal Exchange Theatre since 1897.

After putting jewellery items in a black bag, he then mounts the back of the motorbike, which stalls before riding off at speed down Deansgate, narrowly avoiding a number of passers-by, including a man who throws a bottle at the robbers.

Watch the video below (warning: bad language):

Killoran told us: “I was on the phone when I heard the bike revving. I hung up, pulled the camera app up on my phone and started filming.

“I saw one of the men jump off the bike, go up to the window with a sledgehammer and smash the window three or four times and then grab some stuff.

“The bike stalled a couple of times and thinking back I wish I’d been able to do something else about it. I don’t think it would have been too hard and loads of people would have jumped on them.

“But I’ve got a wife and daughters and you don’t know what might happen. You can’t put yourself in that danger.”

He said that police took 15 minutes to arrive after the incident but that there were community support officers on the scene almost immediately who took statements from witnesses. Killoran said that he and several others had already emailed video clips of the incident to police.

Witnesses managed to take the bike’s number plate but, as the video shows, the men were well covered.

Killoran added: “You couldn’t see an inch – they were wearing helmets and balaclavas. It was so brazen, with loads of people around. They just assume they’ll get away with it.”