One of the teens charged after "traumatising" Ashton bus station robbery has been named

Police were called to reports of a robbery at Ashton-under-Lyne bus station where two young victims were robbed by a group of five older males.

18-year-old Abdul Kadir was charged with two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery, alongside two 17-year-old boys, a 15-year-old and a 14-year old boy.

One of the 17-year-olds was also charged with possession of a bladed article.

They have all been remanded into custody before their next court appearance today, Wednesday 24 April.

At around 9.15pm last night the victims - aged 13 and 15 - were walking through Ashton bus station when they were approached by the group and split up.

A parent took to Facebook, claiming her daughter had been one of the victims.

"She is absolutely traumatised. She only went to the cinema with her friends! Nobody around helped them! Just stood and watched, the only person who helped was the security guard or bus driver (not sure what his role was) and I would love to find him to thank him - I’ve rang around with no luck.

"Also a massive thank you to the police who were there within minutes to catch them. They were all very lucky, it’s such a shame the way the world is now where you can’t even go to the cinema."

Both victims had items taken from them including mobile phones and airpods. One victim was forced to remove his trainers which were also stolen.

Superintendent Arif Nawaz, of our Tameside District, said: “Response officers attended the scene and spoke with the victims. They were quickly able to establish that the suspects had boarded a tram bound for Manchester city centre.

“They passed this information onto specialist officers on the transport unit who were able to trace the tram. The offenders tried to flee but were quickly detained by officers from our transport unit - one offender was found hiding in a bush by the attending police dog.

“All the offenders were searched and property belonging to all three victims was found on each of the offenders - one offender was even wearing the victims’ trainers.

“During the searches large knives were found on two of the offenders and a screwdriver on another.

“This is a great example of proactive policework from our local response and transport teams. Working together, they were able to remove dangerous weapons from theses offenders who were carrying them on the tram network and returned stolen items to the young victims."