A 15-year-old boy is in custody after two people were stabbed on Whittaker Lane, Prestwich at 5.41pm on Tuesday. A boy of 16 and a man of 18 went to hospital.
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested after two people were stabbed on a residential street in Prestwich.
Greater Manchester Police published its account on Wednesday afternoon. In the force’s own statement, timed at 14:37 on 23 September, GMP said:
- officers were called at 5.41pm on Tuesday 22 September to reports of a stabbing on Whittaker Lane, Prestwich
- a boy aged 16 and a man aged 18 were taken to hospital
- their injuries are “not believed to be life threatening or life changing”
- a boy aged 15 has been arrested on suspicion of assault and “remains in police custody for questioning”
- the force believes this was an isolated incident
- a scene remained in place while investigations continued
Detective Superintendent Gareth Jenkins, from GMP’s Bury district, said officers were making progress. “We now have a 15-year-old suspect in custody, and he is currently being questioned by investigators,” he said.
He added: “Violence on our streets will not be tolerated, and I want to reassure members of the public that we believe this is an isolated incident with no wider threat to the public.”
Nobody has been charged. An arrest is not a charge and not a conviction, and the force has not named anyone involved.
Where this happened
Whittaker Lane is a residential street in the Heaton Park part of Prestwich, in the M25 postcode district, according to OpenStreetMap’s address record for the road. It sits inside Bury council’s boundary, and the detective leading the investigation is from GMP’s Bury district.
What the published record can and cannot tell you
There is no way to look up how often this happens on your own street in Bury, and that is worth saying plainly.
police.uk, the national crime map, carries almost nothing for Greater Manchester. We queried its street level crime data on 24 September for July 2026, the most recent month published. Within one mile of Manchester city centre it returned six crimes. The same query returned 1,425 for Leeds and 4,728 for central London.
So the only published knife crime measure that covers Prestwich is a force-wide one. The Office for National Statistics published it on 23 July. Greater Manchester Police recorded 2,855 knife-enabled offences in the year to March 2026, a 17% fall on the year before. That is 6% of the England and Wales total of 48,774, which itself fell by 8% from 53,096.
Those are figures for the whole of Greater Manchester. They say nothing about Prestwich, Whitefield or Radcliffe on their own. The next update is due on 22 October.
Bury’s youth justice service went standalone this month
Separately, and with little attention at the time, the way the borough works with under-18s who come into contact with the police changed at the start of September. Bury’s Youth Justice Service stopped being a shared partnership with Rochdale and became a standalone local service on 1 September, the council said on 10 September.
The council says the service now covers a population of 187,500 across Bury, Ramsbottom, Tottington, Radcliffe, Whitefield and Prestwich on its own, working with GMP, health services, Complex Safeguarding, Missing from Home and youth services. It describes its approach as one-to-one mentoring, targeted prevention, victim engagement and restorative work.
Councillor Sandra Walmersley, cabinet member for children and young people, said the service reinforces “the importance of supporting, and where necessary challenging, parents and carers”.
What it means for you
If you were on or near Whittaker Lane on Tuesday evening, police want to hear from you. GMP has asked anyone with information to:
- call 101 and quote log 2743 of 22/09/2026
- or report it through the Live Chat function at gmp.police.uk
- or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111
A scene was still in place when the force published its statement, so expect some disruption on and around the street. We have not been able to confirm today whether it has been lifted. If you are planning a journey through Prestwich, our Bury roadworks and travel page carries the closures we have verified this week.
We will update this article if GMP publishes anything further. We do not report court proceedings, and we will not name anyone the force has not named.
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