Mancunian Way: 'They've cut my mate's hand off'

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It's Halloween - the creepiest night in the calendar. And it seems to get more and more elaborate every year.

We'll be pounding the petrifying streets of Prestwich tonight, specifically Gardner Road, where there's one house in particular that really goes for it. I'll be in my now traditional outfit of cagoule, jeans and trainers, but this year I'll be accompanied by a bright red lobster and an Oompa Loompa, although we're having some technical issues sorting out the green hair.

Before we kick off today's newsletter here's a few more tales of ghostly goings-on in Greater Manchester to get you in the mood for tonight, including the curse of the Black Shuck, the screaming skull of Wardley Hall and Stockport's haunted 321 bus.

“Some… lad’s just took my mate’s hand off with an axe,” a panicked 999 caller tells the operator. “His hand is nearly off.”

In scenes resembling a real-life horror movie, BBC viewers were last night given a shocking insight into the brutality of gangland Greater Manchester. Documentary The Detectives: Taking Down An OCG, shines a light on how drug gangs operate — including bribing witnesses, grooming children and using extreme violence to control their patch.

This series follows a specialist police unit in Rochdale trying to dismantle the Adam gang on the town's Newbold Estate. The beginning of episode one, now on iPlayer, leaves viewers in no doubt over how vicious the gang members can be.

And what makes the axe attack even more shocking is that it began as a simple road rage incident and the victim,