Violent protests across Britain see police injured as bricks and bottles thrown
Violent protests across Britain have led to officers being injured as objects such as bricks, chairs and bottles were thrown at police.
Merseyside Police said a number of officers were injured during “serious disorder” in Liverpool city centre on Saturday, with one officer being hit on the head by a chair.
In Hull, four people have been arrested as three officers were hurt during a protest in which a group of people targeted a hotel which houses asylum seekers.
Cities across the country saw clashes between anti-immigration demonstrators and counter-protesters, with police forming lines with riot shields to keep groups apart.
Ministers prepared to meet on Saturday to discuss the potential for further disorder after a series of violent clashes over the past three days.
In Liverpool, bricks, bottles and a flare were also thrown at officers as they lined The Strand in the city centre.
Another officer was kicked and knocked off his motorcycle by a demonstrator and others tried to kick riot shields.
Elsewhere on Saturday, bricks were thrown at officers in Stoke-on-Trent and fireworks were thrown amid tense exchanges between an anti-Islamic group and an anti-racism rally in Belfast.
In Hull, Humberside Police Chief Superintendent Darren Wildbore said officers have “faced eggs and bottles being thrown” as windows were smashed at the hotel which has housed migrants.
Greater Manchester Police said a dispersal notice had been authorised for the city centre and Merseyside Police said greater stop and search powers had been granted for officers to deal with planned demonstrations.
Scuffles broke out as opposing groups faced each other in Nottingham’s Market Square with bottles and other items thrown from both sides, and chants of “England till I die” and “Tommy Robinson” were drowned out by boos from counter-protesters.
At least three people were led away in handcuffs in the East Midlands city.
Around 150 people carrying St George flags shouting “You’re not English any more” and “Paedo Muslims off our street” were greatly outnumbered in Leeds by hundreds of counter-protesters shouting “Nazi scum off our streets”.
Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and punks in Blackpool, with bottles and chairs being thrown and wood wielded.
On Saturday it was not possible to search “Tommy Robinson” on TikTok, with the social media platform instead showing the message: “This phrase may be associated with behaviour or content that violates our guidelines.”
Cleveland Police denied claims that the organiser of a march in Middlesbrough on Sunday had been arrested on terrorism charges.
The force issued a statement saying a 29-year-old man had been arrested on Friday over firearms offences after Mr Robinson had posted: “Lad who organised Middlesbrough march been locked up on terrorism charges.”
The string of violent incidents began in Southport on Tuesday, where demonstrators attacked police and set cars on fire the day after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.
The weekend protests followed a night of “unforgivable” violence in Sunderland, which saw a Citizens Advice office burned down.
A priest at Sunderland Minster said yobs tried to smash a gravestone to use for missiles during widespread violence in the city, adding that it was “an act of sacrilege”.
Sunderland Central Labour MP Lewis Atkinson said a link could be drawn between the disorder in his constituency on Friday and the ashes of the English Defence League (EDL), which was founded by Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
The far right has drawn condemnation from MPs across the political spectrum after disorder in London, Manchester, Southport and Hartlepool over the past three days.
Cleveland Police said two boys, aged 11 and 14, have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder after the protests in Hartlepool.
The EDL has disbanded but its supporters remain active, and Mr Atkinson said evidence suggested a Nazi offshoot of the group was involved in the violence in his constituency on Friday, in which a police station was torched and a mosque attacked.
Northumbria Police said four officers were injured during the violence in Sunderland and 12 people have been arrested.
Qari Asim, chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, said the Muslim community is “deeply worried and anxious about the planned protests by the far-right groups across the country”.
An extra 70 prosecutors will be on standby this weekend to charge people who set out to cause violent disorder as the authorities prepare to deal with dozens of demonstrations.
Campaign group Hope Not Hate has identified more than 30 events taking place.
Thousands of people had turned out to pay their respects to Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, at a vigil in Southport on Tuesday.
Violence later erupted outside a mosque in the town and 53 police officers and three police dogs were injured.
British prime minister Keir Starmer later condemned “thugs” who had travelled to the town to cause unrest.
The unrest poses the biggest challenge yet to his premiership, evoking the scale of public disorder last seen during the 2011 riots.
There were a series of clashes in August 2011 in cities and towns across England, which started in Tottenham Hale, north-east London, after the killing of Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police on August 4.