Chaos as huge brawl breaks out beside Rochdale tram stop as fireworks 'launched at people'

A huge brawl broke out beside a tram stop in Rochdale on Thursday evening (October 19) with fireworks reportedly 'launched at people', according to horrified witnesses.

A large police presence was spotted in the town centre at around 5pm responding to the incident, which onlookers have described as a fight between 'around 30 males' as fireworks were thrown 'off the platform at people just passing by'.

The chaos sparked a number of posts to be shared across social media on Thursday, with one person writing on Facebook: "My daughter just called me scared they may target her and her mates. I have asked them to hunker down somewhere safe."

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Another person added: "Did you see the massive brawl that broke out just after 5 o'clock? Hundreds of them fighting on the tram platform, broken bottles flying about as well."

There were similar scenes again in Rochdale town centre last week, with police responding to a gang of 40 youths blasting fireworks at people near to the Rochdale Cenotaph in front of the town hall.

One woman told the M.E.N at the time that she was ‘surrounded’ by over ‘200 young lads’ while walking through the town, with a firework 'bouncing off her baby's pram'.

A witness of the incident on Thursday said: "It was a group of around 30 males, I would say mid to late teens, most of them look to be older than school age, throwing fireworks off the platform at people just passing by or waiting for the tram.

"Tonight as I approached the tram stop hundreds of them came from nowhere and started brawling with a few members of the public, throwing