This is the moment a woman is dragged from a tent as bailiffs evict people from The Ark homeless shelter on Oxford Road.

Footage shows rough sleepers clashing with bailiffs and officers as they were being removed from the ‘self-serving community’ on Friday morning.

A number of the camp’s occupants are caught on camera tussling with authorities, as trouble flared when camp member Jen Wu was forcibly evicted from her tent. She later fainted and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

The Ark was created for rough sleepers several weeks ago, but Manchester Metropolitan University own the site and their staff began the eviction at around 7am. The university were enforcing a possession order granted by a judge in court last week.

There were clashes as the rough sleepers were moved - with police tactical aid officers being called at one stage. However this afternoon the situation was calm.

However, members of the camp, situated under The Mancunian Way flyover, complained they had been given no warning that they were to be turfed off the land.

In pictures: Homeless people evicted

Some said that bailiffs had used ‘brute force’ to move them on, while others claimed that their possessions had been thrown into bins.

One man who had helped to create The Ark, Ryan Mcphee, was also arrested for breaching the peace but later released without charge.

After being thrown off the land, homeless Luke John-Carter said: “Where are we supposed to go? What’s happened is a travesty, disgusting.

“We have nowhere to live and nowhere safe to bed down now.

“How could we move the shelter in 30 minutes? The university don’t care about us, just its image.”

But a spokesperson for the University said that that they had no obligation to tell the camp when the possession order would be enforced.

(Image: Dominic Salter)

They said: “The University sought and secured a court order confirming an unauthorised trespass, which enabled us to regain possession of this land.

“We have been working with the council and support agencies to understand the complex nature of this situation and the group, and have satisfied ourselves that our actions would not be detrimental to genuine causes and individual needs.

“Throughout this period, several members of the group have been aggressive and verbally abusive to university employees.

“The majority of the protesters who were removed this morning are not recognised as homeless individuals, either by the council or by GMP.”

“All members of the protest group were allowed adequate time to remove their personal possessions and larger items have been safely secured for retrieval within seven days.”

(Image: Dominic Salter)

Today’s eviction follows on from a long running legal battle between people protesting against the council’s homelessness policy and the town hall.

And individuals from The Ark claimed that the council had not offered its homeless occupants enough help to get off the streets.

But today five rough sleepers accepted an offer of temporary accommodation from the council’s homeless team who were present during the eviction.

Coun Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council’s executive member for neighbourhoods, said: “Members of our homelessness unit were on site this morning - as they have been on a regular basis since the first camps appeared in April - to offer accommodation, help and support to anyone who needs it.

"I am pleased to say that five people accepted our offers and are now in accommodation this morning as a result of the homeless team’s work - some of these people are in a building we have recently been working hard to open up as a residential unit to accommodate rough sleepers.

After being moved on the camp members moved to a nearby plot of land which was not owned by the university, while the others that had accepted the offer of accommodation left the camp.

At 6pm, there were reports that staff acting for Bruntwood had served an eviction notice on those remaining at the site.Bruntwood has not responded to call from the M.E.N.