Police believe a feud between two south Manchester gangs is behind the outbreak of violence in Moss Side, including two murders.
A senior police source says tensions between teenage members of the Moss Side Bloods and the Rusholme Crips have erupted over the last few months.
The reason for the sudden increase in violence - following years of uneasy peace - has not been made known.
However, two murders and one attempted murder which took place in Moss Side since December are being linked to the feud.
Abdul Wahab Hafidah, 18, was run over by a Vauxhall Corsa on Moss Lane East during the evening rush-hour before the occupants stabbed him in his neck and abdomen on May 12.
The violence began on December 30 when a 22-year-old man was blasted in the chest on Salisbury Street. He was lucky to survive.
Then on March 22, Ahmed Mohammed - known locally as ‘Mudz’ - was fatally stabbed on Crondall Street.
Police have previously said all three incidents are linked to a feud between 'established criminal groups' in Moss Side and Rusholme.
The M.E.N. understands those groups are the Moss Side Bloods and the Rusholme Crips.
The increase in violence comes after what GMP describes as a reorganisation of XCalibre, its highly successful anti-gang unit which was based at Greenheys police station in Moss Side.
It was partly responsible for an uneasy peace between south Manchester’s gangs since a peak of shootings in 2007.
Its officers were on first name terms with gang members and patrolled every night of the year around Moss Side, Old Trafford, Longsight and Rusholme, literally getting ‘in the faces’ of known gang members.
Under the reorganisation, ‘Xcal’ officers have joined bobbies in the ‘Challenger’ police teams of north and south Manchester, also set up to tackle organised crime groups.
Although overall the number of officers in the newly organised group is marginally higher, those officers must now cover a far bigger patch.
It has led to concerns inside GMP that hard-fought peace in south Manchester is now at serious risk.
Bosses at GMP deny this, insisting that some south Manchester gang members simply moved away from their original turf and their new approach is to address their migration away from traditional ‘gangland’.
One source close to XCalibre told the M.E.N : “When we started we always said it would take ten to 15 years. Until we get a generation who haven’t experienced (gang violence) it’s always going to be a threat and it’s going to happen again.
“There are still an awful lot of old scores that haven’t been settled. You don’t get shootings or killings without people holding grudges. What we did was keep a lid on it. There are kids out there in their 20s whose dads were murdered.”
James Gregory, whose son Giuseppe was shot dead seven years ago outside a pub in Stretford, admitted the sudden spike in trouble was ‘worrying’.
Now a spokesman for the campaign group Fathers Against Violence, he told the M.E.N: “It’s a community problem. It’s everybody’s problem. It’s going to take everybody to help in this situation. Not just the police, but everybody. It’s always families that have to pick up the pieces.”
Chief Superintendent Catherine Hankinson said: “Keeping people safe is everyone’s business and neighbourhood officers work closely with the community to give people the confidence to come forward and speak to us about their concerns."