A 23-year-old man has been arrested after a police officer was slashed with a sword, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.
The force said the officer went into hospital hospital with “serious injuries” following the incident in Whalley Range at around 1.50pm on Sunday. The officer, a sergeant, was discharged several hours later.
A number of roads remain closed around the scene in Demesne Road, GMP said.
One witness, who gave his name as Haroon, said he saw a man being arrested by officers on Upper Chorlton Road at around 2.50pm, who had been “attacking the police”.
Describing how the man was carrying a “3ft tool or sword”, he said he ran across the road into the front garden of a property on the street.
“From there the police tried to stun him because he wasn’t dropping the weapon … I don’t know if the officer made a successful tase,” he added.
“He became even more aggressive and ran towards them with the weapon up in the air … from there the officers tackled him, pushed him over and then I think he ran backwards and fell over.
“That is when the officer tried to disarm him, and you could see them using their weapons (batons) and they were hitting him on the legs – and he was not letting go.
“You could see him still hitting back while he was on the floor.”
He said the man “had hit a couple of the officers”, and added that he saw them bleeding – one from the lip or nose, and another at the top of their head.
He said the man appeared to be “out looking for trouble”, and was shouting during the incident.
Greater Manchester Police assistant chief constable Russ Jackson said the officers who were called to reports of a man armed with a sword “responded with immense bravery”.
He said the sergeant who suffered injuries to his face and shoulder is “making a good recovery”, adding that it was “an incredibly nasty incident which could have been so much worse”.
Jackson extended his thanks for the “overwhelming number of messages of support and best wishes for the officers involved”, adding that it “means a lot to our colleagues”.