POLICE are continuing their inquiries into separate brutal machete attacks which left two men suffering slash wounds.

A spokesman said they were keeping an "open mind" on whether the attacks on Sumner Street and Tyldesley Road, Atherton - only half a mile apart - were connected.

They happened within 15 minutes of each other late last Wednesday night when armed men wearing balaclava masks burst into the houses.

Police confirmed a shotgun had been fired at the door of the rented house in Sumner Street.

At that address victim David Appleton, 37, suffered slash wounds to his arms and legs. In the second attack Chris Taylor, 26, suffered a cut arm.

Both were discharged after hospital treatment.

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