Last night a media circus descended on Salford yet again as tv cameras, reporters and photographers from all over the world jostled with hundreds of people who came to Ordsall Lane to show quiet respect for Anuj Bidve, the student from Pune who was brutally shot dead on Boxing Day morning as he walked with friends from Trafford Road into Manchester town centre.
Candles were lit, prayers were said and respect was paid by people from all over the country, as well as many Ordsall residents. Local dignitaries, including Salford Council Leader John Merry and LibDem leader Norman Owen, the Mayor and Mayoress, the Bishops of Lancaster and Bolton, and local councillors also attended.
Shock, horror and disbelief was the overall feeling, particularly from the Ordsall community still coming to terms with the apparent indiscriminate shooting. One person holding a lit up placard reading `Racist Murder, Never Again' was told in no uncertain terms to remove it by local people arguing that it could have been `anyone, anywhere'.
The Salford Star spoke to international Vietnamese student Tahm Ha, who saw the killing on the BBC news and was horrified to hear that it happened outside the window of her Ordsall flat…
"I wasn't here at the time but I heard about it from my flatmate and the BBC news" she said "I was surprised and scared, I knew it was in Salford but not outside my window. I've lived here for seven months as an international student and I've never had any problems.
"A few days before this happened me and three other Vietnamese friends went to town and came home quite late, so we were scared thinking about that" she added "But usually everyone's fine around here. Now some of my friends have advised me to move…"
As the killing moves down the news agenda to be overtaken by horrors in other parts of the country, the community is left to pick up the pieces and hope that a return to the gun ridden headlines of 1992 doesn't become a fixture of the area.
Vigil photographs by Albert Spiby