MANCHESTER — An 18-year-old wheelchair user was asked to leave Club Tropicana in Manchester's Gay Village on a Saturday night after staff told her that her wheelchair was a safety risk. Manchester City Council confirmed it was looking into the incident after the woman complained to its licensing committee.

Maddie Haining, a college student from Oldham, went to the nightclub with a friend after visiting several other bars in Manchester earlier that evening. Security staff helped lift her wheelchair into the venue and initially told her and her friend there was no problem with their presence. Within five minutes, however, a bar manager asked her to leave.

"I asked 'how was I a safety risk?' If I was a safety risk they wouldn't have let me in in the first place. They wouldn't explain why, and then the story changed to that I was a fire risk." Haining said.

Haining showed staff the 2010 Equality Act on her phone to explain that wheelchair users cannot be removed on the basis of a fire risk. The manager repeated his request for her to leave without explaining why, and the security staff apologized, telling her they had been instructed to ask her to leave. The manager also threatened to pass any fines the venue received on to Haining. She eventually decided to leave and asked for the names and contact details of staff to file a complaint before being escorted out. She posted a clip of the conversation to Instagram.

"It was infuriating as I showed them the law and they had not taken any of it on board," Haining said.

A Club Tropicana spokesperson said an investigation was under way into the incident. "We have not been contacted directly by the complainant but we have been made aware of the incident," the spokesperson said. "It would be inappropriate to comment further."

Under the Equality Act, venues have a legal responsibility to make reasonable adjustments to ensure access for disabled people, including providing extra support such as ramps for wheelchair users and other measures where practical or proportionate. Failure to make reasonable adjustments is a form of discrimination, and refusing someone entry because of a disability could breach the act.