Violent disorder on Saturday swept across several UK cities, with police injured and property damaged in the most widespread rioting in the country for 13 years, following the murder of three young girls in northwest England.
Riots involving hundreds of anti-immigration protesters have erupted in towns and cities after false information spread rapidly on social media that the suspect in Monday last week’s knife attack at a children’s dance class in Southport was a radical Muslim migrant.
Police have said the suspect, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in the UK, but protests by anti-immigration and anti-Muslim demonstrators have continued, descending into violence, arson and looting.
Photo: AFP
Violent disorder erupted in Liverpool, Bristol, Hull and Belfast — four cities in different corners of the UK — with scuffles breaking out and bricks and bottles thrown as anti-immigration protesters faced groups opposed to racism.
Many police officers were injured as they tried to keep several hundred rival protesters — largely young men who were chanting slogans — from clashing.
In Liverpool, two officers were in hospital with suspected facial fractures, while another was pushed from his motorbike and assaulted in the disorder involving about 750 protesters and a similar number of rival protesters, said Merseyside Police, the force overseeing the northwestern city.
At least two shops in Liverpool were vandalized and looted, police said.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the southwestern city of Bristol, although anti-racist protesters outnumbered anti-immigration groups, with TV footage showing them facing off with police in riot gear.
In Belfast, some businesses reported damage to property, while at least one was set on fire, police said.
“I have no reason why they attacked us,” said Rahmi Akyol, standing outside the shattered glass doors of his cafe in Belfast, which he said was attacked by dozens of people with bottles and chairs.
“I’ve lived here 35 years. My kids, my wife is from here. I don’t know what to say, it’s terrible,” he said.
Across the UK, police have arrested dozens of individuals for offenses ranging from violent disorder to burglary and criminal damage.
Extra police have been deployed across cities, while mosques across the country have been advised to strengthen security following an attack on a mosque in Southport on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, facing his first big test since his election a month ago, has condemned the “far-right” for the wave of violence and backed police to take strong action.
He discussed the disorder with senior ministers on Saturday, his office said.
On Friday night, hundreds of anti-immigration demonstrators in Sunderland threw stones at police in riot gear near a mosque, before overturning vehicles, setting a car alight and starting a fire near a police station.
“This was not a protest. This was unforgivable violence and disorder,” Mark Hall, chief police superintendent of the Sunderland area, said on Saturday.
Further protests were planned for yesterday.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS