The clubbers driving into town for a night out could be forgiven for thinking they'd taken a wrong turn.

Rolling roadblocks manned by sniffer dogs and armed police in bulletproof vests stretched across the main roads. Some were asked to step out of their cars and body-searched on the pavement.

Known faces were questioned and warned off. But this wasn't Belfast at the height of the Troubles , it was Manchester in the late 90s.

And the 'ring of steel' cops had placed around the city centre was unprecedented in mainland Britain outside of a terrorist attack.

"We aim to show the villains who's in charge," a bullish city centre police chief Peter Owen, told the Manchester Evening News . "They've got too big for their boots.

"Half the people checked were target criminals. This is ou

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