Videos of the chaos at Manchester Airport on Tuesday have shocked the nation after a man was kicked and stamped on by a police officer.
The footage appears to show an officer on the head of a man lying face down on the floor, with a woman kneeling beside him – before a second man was struck.
Police said three of their officers had been assaulted, including a female police constable who suffered a broken nose, and four men were arrested.
But a lack of videos showing both the run-up to the chaos and what happened on board the plane from Pakistan have left a series of unanswered questions.
Here, MailOnline looks at some of these – including who allegedly started the altercation with the men’s mother, and why no bodycam footage has come out:
1. Why do no videos show the start of the incident?
Greater Manchester Police has revealed that firearms officers had been responding to reports of an altercation between members of the public.
The force said three officers faced a ‘violent assault’ and were ‘punched to the ground’ while attempting to arrest a suspect from this earlier altercation.
A female officer suffered a broken nose and all three were taken to hospital for treatment, but there is no video evidence of what happened.
All of the clips posted online so far show multiple angles of when an officer appeared to kick and then stamp on the head of a man lying face down on the floor.
It is not known whether members of the public have any further videos of what happened before this and have simply chosen not to release them.
But it is likely that different angles of the start of the incident were caught on police bodycams, which will give greater clarity as to how things began.
Footage of the attack – which also appeared to show Fahir and brother Amaad’s mother being shoved by officers – went viral online
Footage filmed by a witness showed a male officer stamping on one of the men’s heads – since identified as Fahir
2. Who allegedly started altercation with the mother?
The chaos at Manchester Airport is now thought to have followed a mid-air row involving the mother of the two men.
Family sources claimed Fahir and Amaad Khan were defending their mother when they were taken into custody by police after she arrived from Pakistan .
The mother was allegedly involved in a row during the flight with a male passenger – with insiders alleging that while she was picking up her luggage in Terminal 2, the same man pushed her with his trolley and made racist comments towards her.
It is claimed that the mother later pointed him out to her sons, and one then confronted the man – before a physical altercation that saw the police called.
However nothing more is known about the man, or why the incident began on the plane. It is also not clear whether he was one of the people arrested by police.
Four men were arrested at the scene for affray and assault on emergency service workers, but Greater Manchester Police have not confirmed their identities.
A second man was also seen being detained in the video – after being ordered off a chair, he appeared to be kicked and hit by the same officer. He has since been named as Amaad
Several Tasers appeared to have been activated during the incident on Tuesday
3. What happened on the plane?
The chaos is believed to be linked back to the flight from Pakistan that landed at Manchester Airport on Tuesday, but little is known about what actually happened.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the family told the newspaper that ‘words were spoken between a middle-aged woman of Asian descent and another passenger’.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham told BBC Radio 4’s World At One yesterday that the mother told her sons there had been ‘an issue on the flight’ and ‘pointed somebody out and then there was an altercation in the arrivals hall’.
But this is all that is known of what happened in flight, and no video footage or further details have been released by any of the passengers on board.
There is also unlikely to have been any police bodycam footage of any on-board incidents because officers are not believed to have been called to the plane.
Additional footage shows the moment police arrest two more men after the incident in which a detainee had his head kicked. Here a police officer uses incapacitant spray on one of the men
4. Why is there no police bodycam footage?
While various videos have been released on social media from bystanders filming the moment that the men was arrested, nothing has been issued by police.
While you might expect bodycam footage to come out quickly in the US – such as in the case of the Donald Trump shooting on July 13 – it’s very different in the UK.
Bodycam footage is rarely issued to the media until it has been shown in court during a trial, and there is sometimes a wait until after sentencing for it to come out.
The video will also likely form part of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation, and is therefore highly unlikely to come out before this has finished. Even then, there could be a wait until any court cases have concluded.
The bodycam footage also may be the only video evidence of the events leading up to the four arrests, when it is claimed three officers faced a violent assault.
Newly elected Rochdale Labour MP Paul Waugh hinted in an interview with BBC Breakfast today that the police hold such video footage and that he had seen it.
He said he went to see the assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester Police to ‘look at some of the footage and to get some of the full facts’, adding: ‘I can’t go into those for obvious reasons – there’s a process that has to got to be followed through.’
The officer is then joined by a colleague who grabs one of the men in a headlock in the footage
The man is then wrestled to ground before being put in handcuffs and dragged out of the building
In one piece of footage, taken by one of the men who was arrested, a police officer can be seen pointing a taser at a group of men
5. Did police really fear their weapons could be taken?
In Greater Manchester Police’s initial response to the video, they said ‘three officers were subject to a violent assault, where they were punched to the ground’.
The force also explained that ‘as the attending officers were firearms officers, there was a clear risk during this assault of their firearms being taken from them’.
Such detail could be used as evidence by the police when explaining why such force was used, given the concerns of how guns could be used in a crowded airport.
Lawyer Akhmed Yakoob (centre) with Fahir and Amaad Khan. He has said ‘justice must prevail’ after footage of the Manchester Airport incident went viral
Demonstrators gathered outside Rochdale Police Station for the second night in a row on Thursday, with some throwing eggs at the building
Chants of ‘We want them sacked’ were heard during a huge protest in Manchester last night
6. How badly injured were the men?
The extent of the men’s injuries remains unclear.
Their lawyer said one was ‘fighting for his life’ but the local MP confirmed today that both had left hospital.
Their solicitor Akhmed Yakoob claimed a CT scan revealed Fahir Khan had a ‘cyst on the brain’ and was admitted to hospital, adding that his health has declined since the incident.
He said: ‘He has got a brain injury. He has been diagnosed with a cyst on his brain.’ However, he admitted he did not know whether it was linked to the arrest.
Mr Yakoob added: ‘He’s deteriorated overnight and he has a brain injury. I come from a boxing background and I’ve seen freak injuries like this.
‘I’ve seen them in person, live, where a boxing fight finishes and person becomes unwell overnight and they’ve passed away the next day.
‘So we can’t take this lightly. The main concern is the safety of that man and later on we will do what we have to do.’
However, newly-elected Rochdale Labour MP Paul Waugh confirmed today that while the family members had been taken to hospital, they were both now at home.
He told BBC Breakfast: ‘Clearly the family members have been hospitalised – one of them was taken to hospital for another scan. I’m hoping that they’re on the mend.
‘But obviously the after-effects of an incident like this are difficult to assess immediately at the time. They’re at home, they are not in hospital.’
