21-Year-Old Asylum Seeker Caught with 7-Inch Knife and Gas Can Near School, Allegedly Planning to Ignite Blaze

THIS is the moment a failed asylum seeker was arrested in possession of a 7-inch knife and petrol can outside a school.

South Sudanese national Both Douk Deng, 21, was on the premises of Edgar Wood Academy in Heywood, Greater , on August 6 last year.

Both Douk Deng is wrestled to the ground by cops Credit: PA Deng has been handed a two year prison sentence Credit: PA

A member of the public earlier raised the alarm after he was observed “behaving oddly” in the street nearby en route to the secondary school holding a petrol can with a hammer tied to his belt.

Deng was “mumbling” as he walked a “full circuit” around the school, which was closed to pupils for the , as he scanned the building and then approached it before builders working on site became concerned and called the .

CCTV footage released by Greater Manchester Police showed Deng kicking over a traffic cone as he walked into the school’s premises and then stamping on another road sign aggressively.

He can also be seen appearing to wave, while carrying the green petrol can, at the workmen who approached him inside the school.

The footage appears to show Deng waving at the workmen while he is carrying a green petrol can Credit: Greater Manchester Police The failed asylum seeker can be seen wandering around the school campus Credit: Greater Manchester Police

A police car then pulled up near the school and bodycam footage showed Deng wailing as he was wrestled to the ground by a police officer.

Deng is told to “stop there” by the officer, who then tells him to “get on the ground now” as he attempts to run away.

An officer can then be heard saying: “He does have a hammer with him as well. And a hatchet.”

Footage then shows Deng being led away in handcuffs to a police van.

Along with the hammer and hatchet, he was found to be in possession of a seven-inch kitchen knife, and a jerry can containing half a litre of petrol.

A day earlier he was spotted “acting oddly” at another school, Holy Family RC and CE College in Rochdale, also closed to pupils, where he kicked and damaged its intercom.

Deng, who has applied for and been refused asylum on three occasions, wanted to “create a scene for attention” to aid his cause, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

Sara Haque, defending, said: “He maintains that his actions were not motivated by any desire to injury or harm any person.

“This was a bizarre and compulsive act lacking in any type of maturity at a time when he was in deep distress having left and his family in traumatic circumstances.

“He wanted attention and he was in crisis but he was not motivated by hostility towards children, teachers or the wider public.

“There is no evidence that he threatened any individual.”

Deng, who has a wife and children, was placed in multiple accommodation housing (HMO) on his arrival in the UK, the court was told.

Ms Haque said: “He found himself in a foreign country with very limited English and unable to work because of his status.

“He believed and felt no-one was listening to him and no-one was helping him.

“He felt he had reached the of his ability to cope within the HMO where others in similar circumstances to him had been assisted by the immigration authorities.

“He became increasingly frustrated that the same was not happening for him.

“His only wish is to work and find to support his family.”

Psychiatric reports on the defendant had not identified any major mental issues, the court heard.

Deng, of Heywood, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a range of offences including criminal damage and possessing weapons and a knife in a public place and on school premises.

Deng was told he must serve up to half his sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.

Judge Bernadette Baxter told him: “I have no power to order the to do anything.

“But in my judgment, given your circumstances as a failed asylum seeker who has been in custody for the best part of a year, the Home Office should be doing something rather than nothing to deal with your status in this country.”

Detectives from Rochdale CID worked “thoroughly” to investigate Deng, including examining his mobile phone, but found no evidence of a particular motive or intent, said police.

Chief superintendent Helen Caldbeck, district commander for Rochdale, said: “I’m incredibly proud of the officers’ response to this incident.

“They were professional and brave in tackling a suspicious man armed with weapons and immediately confronted Deng to keep the public safe.

“Thankfully no one was close to coming to harm but this was nevertheless a disturbing incident.”

Deng was sentenced to two years in .