{"id":15228,"date":"2025-09-17T16:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/live-schools-on-lockdown-in-wigan-as-armed-police-called-to-firearms-report\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T04:02:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T04:02:39","slug":"live-schools-on-lockdown-in-wigan-as-armed-police-called-to-firearms-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/live-schools-on-lockdown-in-wigan-as-armed-police-called-to-firearms-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Live: Schools &#8216;on lockdown&#8217; in Wigan as armed police called to firearms report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A number of schools were put in lockdowns in Wigan on Wednesday afternoon with a police helicopter called to the area following an emergency alert.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Police confirmed they were called to the Gerard Street area of Ashton-in-Makerfield following reports of a suspicious male. It&#039;s understood a number of local schools were placed into lockdown safety procedures with children locked inside.<\/p>\n<p>One parent claimed her child at Byrchall High School, on Warrington Road in Ashton-in-Makerfield, was among those &#039;hiding&#039; inside amid the incident in the town centre. It&#039;s understood police attended the school earlier today among others.<\/p>\n<p>Never miss a story with the MEN&#039;s daily Catch Up newsletter &#8211; get it in your inbox by signing up here<\/p>\n<p>Police remain in attendance in the area following the earlier incident. Officers and the police helicopter attended the location and conducted an area search throughout the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Greater Manchester Police have been contacted for a full statement.<\/p>\n<p>This is a breaking incident. Updates to follow.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Events<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Full police statement after armed officers and helicopter deployed<time>17:29<\/time><\/li>\n<li>Message from local school as parents and carers told of &#039;lockdown&#039; incident<time>17:19<\/time><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><time>17:29<\/time>KEY EVENT<\/p>\n<h3>Full police statement after armed officers and helicopter deployed<\/h3>\n<p>A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: &quot;At around 3.15pm today we were called to reports of a suspected firearms sighting on Gerard Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;No injuries have been reported. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Armed officers were deployed to the area with a high visibility of neighbourhood patrols.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Two men were stopped and searched with no firearms located.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>No arrestes have been made in connection with the incident, the force added.<\/p>\n<p><time>17:19<\/time>KEY EVENT<\/p>\n<h3>Message from local school as parents and carers told of &#039;lockdown&#039; incident<\/h3>\n<p>A message was sent to parents and carers regarding children being put in lockdown at Byrchall High School earlier today.<\/p>\n<p>The message below said the phones were out of service and that all pupils still inside the school were safe and being supervised by staff.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_get_attachment_url-3.jpg\"\/><\/figure>\n<p><time>17:12<\/time>James Holt<\/p>\n<h3>Local schools reportedly shut down after police alert today<\/h3>\n<p>Byrchall High School, Cansfield, and St Oswald\u2019s RC Primary, were among the local schools thought to have been put into lockdown procedures today after police were contacted about a suspected gunman.<\/p>\n<p>One parent told the M.E.N their step-daughter attends a local school. She said &#039;nobody could get near the school&#039; with students &#039;hiding inside&#039; amid the large police response today.<\/p>\n<p><time>17:08<\/time>James Holt<\/p>\n<h3>Nearby shops also &#039;put on lockdown&#039;<\/h3>\n<p>According to people in the area, local shops close to Gerard Street were also closed temporarily this afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>It followed reports that were made to police about a man being seen with a gun close by to the Gerard Centre at around 3.15pm.<\/p>\n<p>Police remain in attendance this afternoon, with visibile patrols continuing into this evening.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_WhatsApp-Image-2025-09-17-at-165555jpeg.jpg\"\/><\/figure>\n<p><time>17:02<\/time>James Holt<\/p>\n<h3>Reports of &#039;firearm&#039; near shops sparks school chaos <\/h3>\n<p>Reports of a firearm being seen in the area sparked chaos towards the end of the school day today, it&#039;s been confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Greater Manchester Police said they were called to reports of a suspected firearm sighting along Gerard Street, in the town centre.<\/p>\n<p>Armed officers along with high-visibility patrols were called to the area. Officers are continuing to patrol Gerard Street and the nearby shopping park car park.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_WhatsApp-Image-2025-09-17-at-165556jpeg.jpg\"\/><\/figure>\n<p><time>16:59<\/time>James Holt<\/p>\n<h3>Schools near Ashton-in-Makerfield town centre &#039;put into lockdown&#039;<\/h3>\n<p>It&#039;s understood a number of local schools were put into lockdown earlier this afternoon following a suspicious incident in the town centre.<\/p>\n<p>Police said they were called to a &#039;suspicious male&#039; at around 3.15pm near to the car park and that a large presence raced to the scene along with a police helicopter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A number of schools were put in lockdowns in Wigan on Wednesday afternoon with a police helicopter called to the area following an emergency alert.<br \/>\n Police confirmed they were called to the Gerard Street area of Ashton-in-Makerfield following reports of a suspicious male. It&#039;s understood a number of local schools were placed into lockdown safety procedures with children locked inside.<br \/>\n One parent claimed her child at Byrchall High School, on Warrington Road in Ashton-in-Makerfield, was among those &#039;hiding&#039; inside amid the incident in the town centre. It&#039;s understood police attended the school earlier today among others.<br \/>\n Never miss a story with the MEN&#039;s daily Catch Up newsletter &#8211; get it in your inbox by signing up here<br \/>\n Police remain in attendance in the area following the earlier incident. Officers and the police helicopter attended the location and conducted an area search throughout the afternoon.<br \/>\n Greater Manchester Police have been contacted for a full s..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15233,"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15228\/revisions\/15233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skybeaconnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}