POLICE say their investigation into two illegal raves which took place in Oldham and Trafford at last weekend is “active”.

The probe into the events at Daisy Nook Country Park and Carrington is being conducted in the wake of acknowledgement from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, police and leaders from the city-region’s 10 councils that “things could’ve been done better”.

At a media briefing organised to announce a crackdown on a possible explosion of illegal summer raves, Greater Manchester assistant chief constable Nick Bailey said the investigation was seeking to identify and prosecute the organisers of the events which attacked a total of 6,000 people.

In Oldham, a 20-year-old man died from a drug overdose and at Carrington an 18-year-old man was stabbed. An 18-year-old woman was also raped.

Mr Bailey said: “There are active investigations in relation to both raves that occurred last week.

“We are gathering and have gathered evidence from the scenes of both those raves which we are using to seek to identify the organisation and organisers of the events.

“I am not able to give the details of those organisers or where are investigations are up to, but they are active.”

This follows an emergency meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority attended by chief constable Ian Hopkins at which an action plan was agreed to prevent police being outwitted by rave organisers – believed to be criminal gangs – again.

Mr Burnham said he wanted to make sure “everything possible was being done to learn the lessons and prevent the chances of any repeat” of the weekend’s events.

He went on: “I asked Greater Manchester to develop a multi-agency action plan learning from what happened last weekend with the explicit aim of preventing or disrupting future events.

“From this point there will be stronger more interventionist approach in future. That means more officers, more disruption, more enforcement.

“But it’s very important for me to say – as much as we don’t want to see any repeat – this presents real challenges for us in this moment that we’re living through.”

Mr Burnham described the events the day of the rave as “extremely challenging” for police with 999 calls up by 50 per cent compared to recent Saturday.

There were some serious incidents across Greater Manchester and a lot of attention had been focused on policing the protest and counter protest in Bolton town centre “which GMP policed extremely effectively”.

“Then on top of all of that, you put these two illegal raves into the mix,” he added.

He said there was “very little intelligence” about the event in Trafford so when police arrived it was too late to take “preventative action”.

Mr Burnham said: “With regard to the events at Daisy Nook, it posed similar challenges in terms of policing.

“But it’s fair to say things could’ve been done better. There could’ve been better gathering of intelligence beforehand. GMP’s communication with the two councils concerned could’ve been stronger, so there are lessons to be learned.

“And that’s what the discussion we had with the chief constable was all about - to develop an action plan where we all come together as one support GMP in dealing with what is a very challenging situation in the middle of a public health crisis.

“We can’t underestimate the scale of the task that the police are facing.”

Mr Bailey said an “intelligence cell” had been set up to co-ordinate information.

“We have set up joint intelligence groups with our own staff and with the local authorities to make sure we gather that information and with that information our next tactic is clearly to prevent those events from occurring.

“And we will have resources dedicated to respond to that intelligence, promptly, effectively and, if we can get there quick enough, to prevent these raves from taking place.

“We will have the support of the local neighbourhood teams, specialist officers and specialist local authority teams where relevant.”

Deputy mayor for policing Bev Hughes said: “We will bear down now and beyond with everything we’ve got across the police and our local agencies to try to stop any repeat attempts of this.

“The last thing we want is a summer of raves. I know there are other localities across the country which have experienced these kind of things over the last weekend are feeling the same. We have to and we will stop this now.”