Police arrest two teenagers on suspicion of shooting dead Anuj Bidve, an Indian student, in Salford in an “awful attack” during the early hours of Monday. Jane Deith reports.
Anuj Bidve, 23, was gunned down at point blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Earlier, police arrested a 17-year old boy and they have now also arrested a 16-year-old in connection with the incident. Both youths remain in custody for questioning.
Mr Bidve and his friends were visiting Manchester on a short break over the Christmas holidays. The Lancaster University student was studying for a micro-electronics postgraduate qualification.
Mr Bidve and his nine male and female friends were walking from their hotel towards the city centre when the shooting took place.
Police said the students, who had not been drinking, became aware of two men on the other side of the street before the gunman – a white male in his 20s – walked across the road and engaged Mr Bidve in a short conversation before shooting him at close range in the side of the head.
Mr Bidve, from Pune, Maharashtra, collapsed and died at hospital a short time later. Police are not ruling out a racial motive for the killing, which they described as an “awful” attack.
They have pledged to leave “no stone unturned” in the hunt for Mr Bidve’s killer.
Separately, a teenager stabbed to death in the Boxing Day sales in London has been named by the Metropolitan Police as Seydou Diarrassouba.
The 18-year-old was stabbed to death during a fight at a Foot Locker sports store on London’s Oxford Street. Several hours later, another youth was stabbed in the leg on the same street.
Police are appealing for witnesses and have arrested 11 people in connection with the death of the teenager.