Reading the BBC version has made me realise this happened about 10 mins drive from my house! You're right though, this is a joke, unless there's something we're not being told. I've read about situations like this before and they've never been this harsh. I think there's something else, maybe the fact he had a sword at home.

The area this happened in is nasty, the buses don't run after 7PM for fear being shot at or having their windows put through. The robbers are also from similarly nasty areas of Salford that I used to have to walk through when I was a student. We used to keep a baseball bat by the door when I lived there.