Workmen discover incomplete tunnel under Farrowfield site; impressed by workmanship

Builders in Manchester have stumbled across an underground tunnel built by would-be burglars.

The workmen were laying ducting for electrical cables at Birchfields Road retail park in Fallowfield, Manchester when they uncovered the 12m tunnel stretching from a railway embankment to beneath a video shop.

The end of the passage was just 5m away from the video shop’s cashpoint when the builders came across it.

The professionally-built tunnel was 1.5m high with scaffolding supports, electric lights and even a rudimentary ventilation system.

An employee for the unnamed company said: “They had made a really good job of the supports. Even the police were impressed with the workmanship.”

Police now think the burglars must have been working on the tunnel for weeks, but there is no sign of the displaced soil.