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GANGS in Birmingham are said to be "excited" to cause carnage on Birmingham's streets after weeks of Instagram taunts during lockdown.
The news follows a spate of vicious assaults in Britain's second city as well as nearby Coventry and Wolverhampton after restrictions on movement were eased.
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Violence flared just days out of lockdown in south Birmingham - including in the Peaky Blinders’ heartland of Small Heath, where 20 people, some armed with bats, clashed on Sunday night.
Nearby Balsall Heath and Sparkbrook areas have also been consumed by violence.
Terrifying footage shot on May 26 showed a masked gunman open fire on a man while his accomplice chased another with a machete after ramming a car off the road on a suburban street.
Thugs were seen violently brawling in traffic in Small Heath, and in Handsworth a 33-year-old man was shot in the leg while walking down the street.
Ex-gang member Simeon Moore, once part of the city’s feared Johnson Crew, said criminals were “excited” by the end of lockdown.
"There’s a lot of excitement - that the truth," he said.
"They’ve been told, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that’. They’ve found it hard to breathe and hard to make money."
"And if they’re struggling, then they’re going to lose control.
“I just think it’s going to get worse until the right things are put in place.”
RECRUITMENT DRIVE
On Monday, officers recovered two flip blades from Cannon Hill Park following a brawl at a nearby bandstand.
Witnesses said one man was set upon by several men while others fought amongst themselves.
In Sheldon, police patrols were ramped up after a man, 28, was gunned down in his doorway by would-be assassins on Friday night.
Just an hour earlier a 17-year-old was stabbed in nearby Elmdon Park in an unrelated incident.
And a man was blasted by a canal in a targeted attack in Wolverhampton on May 29, hours after dad-of-one Carl ‘Marblez’ Moorhouse, 34, was murdered in a street fight in Leamington Spa.
Meanwhile, two more murders were recorded within 24 hours in Coventry this week.
City youngsters kept on a straight path may also have gone off the rails after the pandemic cut short community anti-gang initiatives, said Moore.
“They’ve been told if you want to be a success, go and sell drugs," he said.
“That the culture that’s been pushed on them. That is why we are seeing this violence.”
“The kids don't have the support they had before the pandemic.”
Reports have suggested that gangs began a "recruitment drive" during lockdown focused on vulnerable children unknown to the police.
They were reportedly targeted on social media as well as "unsafe outdoor spaces".
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Anti-gang campaigner Lynne Baird, 60, whose son Daniel who was knifed to death in July 2017, said the attacks had left her fearful of leaving the house.
The mum of eight said: “The kids around here are just going mad - they have all been cooped up for so long.
“I’m scared to leave my house at the moment. It seems to have got a lot worse all of a sudden."
Addressing a conference of regional leaders, West Midlands crime tsar David Jamieson said: “We’re now seeing the increase of violence on the streets.
“The gangs – they too are now coming out of lockdown.
“We’ve seen quite a large increase in gun discharges across the West Midlands, mainly in and around the centre of Birmingham, but really in all areas.
“The gangs are fighting for territory, [they’re] getting really quite bold.
“So that violence that we’ve known before is there now manifesting itself.”
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The sudden escalation in violent crimes comes a year after knife crime in Birmingham was declared an “emergency” by cops.
“A year ago Birmingham was lawless and the police couldn't cope," said Mrs Baird.
“Something needs to be done before it happens all over again.”
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