Families fear attacks as police investigate 40 damaged homes

Families in Greater Manchester have described feeling unsafe in their own homes after a series of attacks on properties believed to be shared housing, with police investigating 40 reports of criminal damage and treating most as racially or religiously motivated.

Greater Manchester Police said 38 of the reports involved properties in Salford and two were in Stockport. The force warned that some homes appeared to have been targeted because attackers wrongly believed they were houses in multiple occupation, commonly known as HMOs.

Reporting published by the Manchester Evening News on Sunday describes a family home in Little Hulton where a brick was thrown through the living-room window on Tuesday, 13 October. Two young children were asleep upstairs while their father was reading in the room below.

The father, who did not want to be identified, said the property was occupied by him, his wife and their children, not multiple unrelated households. He said the family had lived there for a year without problems but now wanted to leave because they felt unsafe.

Police warn of mistaken targets

The force’s latest published update covered reports received since 5 October. Its total of 40 includes the 38 Salford incidents referred to in Sunday’s account, alongside the two further reports from Stockport. Those are not separate groups to be added together.

Offences described in the reporting include smashed windows and graffiti opposing HMOs. Police said they were monitoring social-media coverage and working with partners, while urging residents to rely on trusted information rather than unverified claims circulating online.

The fact that a property has been attacked does not establish that it is an HMO. Nor does an allegation about how a home is occupied justify criminal damage. The family’s account illustrates the risk of residents being targeted on the basis of assumptions about their address.

Detective Inspector Emma Puckering, the senior investigating officer, said the force was taking a robust approach and would not tolerate the offending. She said patrols would continue over the weekend, including in Stockport, with officers available to answer questions and hear concerns.

Most reports treated as hate-related

Puckering said the nature of the suspected crimes meant the vast majority of reports were being treated as racially or religiously motivated. That describes the police approach to the investigation; it is not a court finding about particular defendants or the identity of those responsible.

The reporting describes residents affected by the attacks as including nurses, care workers and refugees. It also records damage at homes that residents say are ordinary family properties, widening the impact beyond the shared-housing category cited in some of the graffiti.

No comprehensive account of suspects, arrests or charges was supplied in the police update cited by the newspaper. The number of reports should therefore not be presented as a count of identified offenders, and the available evidence does not establish who coordinated the attacks.

Police said officers would remain accessible to residents who had questions about events over the preceding days. They also acknowledged that some people might not want to speak directly to the force and pointed to the independent charity Crimestoppers as an anonymous route for information.

Council condemns intimidation

Salford Council said the attacks were being linked. Councillor Barbara Bentham, its lead member for neighbourhoods, environment and community safety, said the authority stood alongside police and law-abiding residents against violence, intimidation and criminal damage.

Bentham said everyone in Salford had the right to feel safe at home. Her response focused on the harm caused to residents, rather than treating the damage as an acceptable form of protest over housing policy or neighbourhood change.

Shared housing can be the subject of legitimate arguments about planning, licensing and local services. Those questions are separate from the investigation into property attacks. The police warning about mistaken targets also means claims made by offenders cannot be assumed to describe the homes accurately.

For the Little Hulton family, the consequences were immediate: a broken window, damage outside the home and fear that another attack could follow. The father’s decision to withhold his name underlines the anxiety surrounding the incidents, although it does not establish a specific continuing threat.

The investigation remains focused on identifying those responsible and preventing further offending. Police are asking communities to share reliable information while patrols continue, as residents and the council seek to restore the expectation that a home should be a place of safety.