A COUPLE who live near where the Manchester bombers' car was found say they are astounded police took almost four weeks to pick the vehicle up.

The red Ford Granada was taken for forensic tests on July 10 after it had been abandoned on Mount Street 25 days earlier, on the day the huge bomb rocked Manchester city centre.

Gail Cocker, who lives on Garden Street next to the resident's-only parking bay, said she and her husband had reported the car, which collected 12 parking tickets while on the town centre street.

She said: "My husband usually parks in the bay where the car was found. He got a parking ticket for parking somewhere else.

"He reported it three weeks ago and then I rang the police as they hadn't moved it."

The car was abandoned with a door unlocked, the keys inside and a window open. Three men are thought to have left the C-registered Ford and possibly caught a train from the station. Police are now checking video footage for clues.

Inspector Warren Turner of Preston police said: "The team running the enquiry knew nothing about the car at the time of the bombing. Even if it had been found within an hour of being left there, it wouldn't have meant anything to anybody."

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