Gang war on the wards: How Gooch gang and Longsight Crew clashed in hospital

It was the day Manchester's biggest hospital was 'turned into a battleground'.

As two of the city's most notorious gangs clashed, medics and patients 'fled for their lives'. Young hoodlums from Gooch Gang and the Longsight Crew chased through corridors on mountain bikes, pulled guns on each other and used hospital trolleys as battering rams, as the underworld war which terrorised the city spilled over into the 'sanctuary' of Manchester Royal Infirmary.

And it all started over an accidental encounter.

READ MORE: 'Enough is enough': The pub truce that brought a halt to the Gooch, Doddington and Cheetham Hill gang war

The enmity between the two gangs stemmed from the 2002 murder of Stephen Amos, who was shot dead outside Bexx Bar in Ashton-under-Lyne. Stephen, 25, was the brother of Gooch gang head honcho Lee Amos.

He believed that the Longsight Crew, a splinter group from the Doddington gang, the arch rivals of the Gooch, were responsible for the killing. And he was right.

In 2003, Richard Solomon, then a 26-year-old member of the Longsight Crew from Hulme, was convicted of the murder of Stephen Amos and the attempted murder of another man and given a life sentence.

But the justice provided by the law wasn't enough for Lee Amos, then locked up on guns charges. Even from behind bars he was determined to settle old scores. Most particularly with the Longsight Crew.

South Manchester was a tinderbox. And the aftermath of a drive-by on Friday, April 23, 2004, provided the spark that lit the fire.

When a 20-year-old Gooch member spotted a Longsight rival in MRI following the shooting it all kicked off.

Reinforcements were called in and soon the feuding gangs clashed in corridors, wards, the x-ray department and the fracture department, causing 'mayhem and panic. One hospital worker told the Manchester Evening News staff had been left terrified by the violence.

Some, she said, locked themselves in offices while making frantic phone calls to police and security.

"If anyone were to shoot a gun, the walls are just like paper," she said. "We know it's bad and we have people fighting in corridors and arguments, but this time we were petrified.

"We were all huddled in the office just phoning police and phoning security. We were too scared to come out."

Police were swiftly on the scene, and although there were reports of guns being present and CCTV footage of one firearm being brandished, none were found on hospital premises. It later emerged the weapons were smuggled out of the hospital in the chaos that followed.

Following the violence panic buttons were fitted in key parts of the hospital. And in May the following year 10 gang members appeared at Preston Crown Court in connection with the feud.

Prosecutor Robert Elias told the court that after the original encounter, two waves of warring thugs descended on the hospital.

"The arrival of the second group caused panic amongst hospital staff and members of the public," he said. "At least two individuals were armed with firearms, or imitation firearms, one had a hammer.

"Hospital staff, patients and visitors fled for their lives."

As one gang member fled the scene and jumped over a desk, his gun went skimming over the floor, the court heard. The defendants were jailed for a total of 14 years after pleading guilty to either affray or public order offences.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Gilbart QC, said the hospital had been 'turned into a battleground'. He said: "Hospitals are essential to the well-being of all and an essential feature of a civilised society. It's a place for care and compassion.

"I'm not aware of any previous case where the corridors of a hospital and its clinics have been turned into a battleground for the continuation of a feud by street gangs.

"This was a disgraceful scene in the hospital corridors and clinics. The effect on patients and staff were dramatic and some require counselling."

Speaking after sentencing Det Sgt Chris Downey said: "A hospital should be a sanctuary, a safe place where patients can recuperate, not an arena in which to settle violent disputes."