"'Big up Keir' Prisoners celebrate their freedom"

Beaming prisoners were greeted with hugs and kisses as they stepped out of the metal gates of HMP Manchester and into the arms of waiting friends and family after being freed under the government's early release scheme.

- Hannah Al-Othman

By lunchtime yesterday, 14 prisoners had been released from the prison, known locally as Strangeways, with several confirming they had been let go early. Two said they had been serving time for drugs offences. Several cars waited for hours parked on the double yellow lines outside the jail, the smell of cannabis wafting from a parked black Audi.

As one man came out, a group of nine women and children rushed to meet him, hugging him just outside the steel doors before the group walked off together. Later, another woman jumped into a man's arms as he left the prison.