Police SNIPERS spotted on roof at peaceful anti-austerity march sparked by Tory conference

Snipers have been pictured in Manchester city centre as thousands march in protest to cuts, coinciding with the Conservative Party conference.

Armed police can be seen on the roof of the Great Northern complex in images that have been widely shared on social media.

Twitter user Ben Whittingham posted an aerial photograph of a man looking through the sniper on top of a roof, the Manchester Evening News reports.

He captioned it: “Just a police sniper on roof of Tory party conference, which resembles a prison.”

Another user, Ben McNally, wrote: “Sniper team on the roof of great northern … For safety.”

One tweeted: “It is drilled into deer stalkers to never use a rifle scope to ‘observe’ in this way.

“Only point at something if going to shoot.”

James Lee wrote: “So why not use binoculars?”