LONDON: Fifty-three police officers and three police dogs were injured during violent riots which erupted in Southport on Tuesday night just yards from where a peaceful vigil had taken place earlier in the evening for the 13 people, mostly children, stabbed in a dance class.
The rioting began at 7.45 pm outside a local mosque when protesters, believed to be supporters of the English Defence League, started to pelt it with bricks. Protesters hurled bricks, wheelie bins, fireworks, lumps of concrete and bottles at police officers who initially were not in riot gear. They also set police vans, wheelie bins and cars on fire.
Many police officers were hit by missiles and could be seen with blood pouring down their faces. Protesters damaged a shop and destroyed garden walls to use the bricks to throw at police as they shouted “Stop the boats” and “save our girls”.
Twenty-seven police officers were taken to hospital. Eight sustained serious injuries, including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and concussion. Others suffered head injuries, serious facial injuries and one was knocked unconscious, Merseyside police said.
Two police dogs sustained injuries from bricks thrown at them and one suffered burns to her leg. So far four men have been arrested for violent disorder and possession of a knife.
Southport mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein said the violence was “terrifying”. “At one point we thought they are coming in and they are going to burn the mosque down,” he said, adding it “would have been helpful” if the police could say the suspect is not Muslim.
Detectives have been granted more time to question the 17-year-old suspect, who has not been named for legal reasons. He was born in Cardiff to parents who moved to Britain from Rwanda.
Police believe misinformation spread online about him triggered the violence.
UK PM Keir Starmer was heckled by onlookers earlier in the day when he went to lay flowers for the dead children with a man shouting: “How many more children are going to die on our streets? Is it mine next?”
Many of the protesters did not live in Merseyside, assistant chief constable Alex Goss said. “It is sickening to see this happening within a community that has been devastated by the tragic loss of three young lives,” he added.
Jenni Stancombe, mother of Elsie, who died in Monday’s attack, appealed for the rioting to end and on Wednesday locals offered food and dog food to police and helped with the clean-up operation.
The rioting began at 7.45 pm outside a local mosque when protesters, believed to be supporters of the English Defence League, started to pelt it with bricks. Protesters hurled bricks, wheelie bins, fireworks, lumps of concrete and bottles at police officers who initially were not in riot gear. They also set police vans, wheelie bins and cars on fire.
Many police officers were hit by missiles and could be seen with blood pouring down their faces. Protesters damaged a shop and destroyed garden walls to use the bricks to throw at police as they shouted “Stop the boats” and “save our girls”.
Twenty-seven police officers were taken to hospital. Eight sustained serious injuries, including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and concussion. Others suffered head injuries, serious facial injuries and one was knocked unconscious, Merseyside police said.
Two police dogs sustained injuries from bricks thrown at them and one suffered burns to her leg. So far four men have been arrested for violent disorder and possession of a knife.
Southport mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein said the violence was “terrifying”. “At one point we thought they are coming in and they are going to burn the mosque down,” he said, adding it “would have been helpful” if the police could say the suspect is not Muslim.
Detectives have been granted more time to question the 17-year-old suspect, who has not been named for legal reasons. He was born in Cardiff to parents who moved to Britain from Rwanda.
Police believe misinformation spread online about him triggered the violence.
UK PM Keir Starmer was heckled by onlookers earlier in the day when he went to lay flowers for the dead children with a man shouting: “How many more children are going to die on our streets? Is it mine next?”
Many of the protesters did not live in Merseyside, assistant chief constable Alex Goss said. “It is sickening to see this happening within a community that has been devastated by the tragic loss of three young lives,” he added.
Jenni Stancombe, mother of Elsie, who died in Monday’s attack, appealed for the rioting to end and on Wednesday locals offered food and dog food to police and helped with the clean-up operation.