A RADCLIFFE trader says he and his business have been personally affected after he was confronted by a knife-wielding Lidl store manager.

Peter Bray, aged 53, who owns The Coffee Shop in Church Street, was out shopping with a friend on January 7 when the pair entered a Lidl supermarket in Harpurhey.

As his friend went in to the aisles to look for items, Mr Bray, proceeded to wait by the busy store's tills.

After a few minutes Mr Bray was contacted by his friend who told him he had left the shop and was now waiting outside.

Mr Bray then attempted to the leave the store via its entrance, but as he approached the door he was confronted by a security guard who asked to look in his bags.

Mr Bray refused and asked to see the store manager.

He said: "I felt like the security guard was talking to me in an aggressive manner, and I didn't like it one little bit.

"I was nervous, but I thought "I'm not backing down to him" as I wanted to see the store manager."

According to Mr Bray the security guard then ran towards him, attempting to grab the bags from him, before the deputy manager approached and attempted to open his shopping with a Stanley knife.

Mr Bray said: "The next thing the member of staff attacked me, and one had one wrist and the other had the other side.

"By this time I was frightened. I thought I could get seriously injured here.

"He did about four or five swipes with this knife, and he could have cut open my thigh and my arm.

"I was trying to get away from him, but the security guard wouldn't let me go.

"They did manage to cut through the bag and all my items fell on the floor. I was very distressed.

"Straight away they realised I had not shop lifted and they backed away."

Mr Bray described the store manager and security guard's actions as "vicious", detailing that he then rang the police as he was asked to leave the store.

The police arrived around 40 minutes later and Mr Bray then alleges that he was told by police that the incident could have been avoided if he had allowed the security guard to look inside his bags.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed that they attended the incident at around 3pm on January 7, but said that the matter was now being dealt with internally by Lidl.

GMP also wished to stress that the Stanley knife did not at any point injure a person.

Following the incident Mr Bray says he suffered injuries and has been forced to close his shop for two days and requires help to open his shutters.

He said: "There have been personal effects. I have damage to my upper left arm, my left shoulder and lower right back.

"I could hardly walk the following day, so I couldn't open my business.

"I have been told by my GP to have six or seven weeks off, which being a small business owner I can't afford to do.

"I can't open the shutters of my shop, so I'm losing business everyday."

According to Mr Bray, police later requested CCTV from Lidl pertaining to the incident, and the store first only supplied a few seconds of footage taken in the alleged incident's aftermath.

The police were later informed by Lidl that the hard drive storing the CCTV footage was damaged and that the footage was lost, Mr Bray said.

Mr Bray is now complaining to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over the issue with the footage, and also alleges that he has received an email from Lidl saying that they have viewed the footage and have decided to deal with it internally.

Mr Bray said: "I'm not happy at all with the way the police handled it. I think it has been very mishandled.

"They told me that hard drives crash all the time and there is nothing they can do.

"I also want Lidl to put their hands up to this and deal with it properly."

A Lidl spokesman said: "We can confirm that police attended an incident in store on January 7 reviewing CCTV footage on site, no further action was taken.

"Nevertheless, we do not condone any behaviour that could be deemed inappropriate or offensive, and a full internal investigation has since been conducted, resulting in appropriate action being taken.

"We have been in direct communication with the customer to inform them of the outcome."