More than 150 persons were arrested following violent anti-immigration protests and rioting across several cities and towns in the United Kingdom over the weekend, reported the BBC.
The protests started after three girls – aged 6, 7 and 9 – were stabbed to death on July 29 in Britain’s Southport.
The demonstrations were fueled by misinformation that the attacker was an immigrant and a radical Islamist, Reuters reported. However, the suspect was born in the British city of Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
The accused person has been identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana. On Thursday, a Liverpool court lifted an anonymity order on the suspect’s identity due to the unrest.
However, the riots and violence continued across the country, including in Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester. The violence has resulted in dozens of arrests as shops and businesses were vandalised and looted and several police officers were injured.
At some places, anti-immigrant groups also attacked hotels where asylum seekers were staying. Protestors vandalised and set on fire two hotels in northern England: one in Tamworth and another in Rotherham, reported CNN.
Ten officers were injured in Rotherham during confrontations with a crowd of 700 rioters, some of whom sprayed the officials with fire extinguishers before smashing hotel windows, Reuters reported.
Britain’s newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Stramer on Sunday warned that those engaging in violence would face criminal action.
“People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques,” Stramer said. “Other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.”
On Monday, an emergency response meeting will be held at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British prime minister. Ministers, civil servants, police officials and intelligence officers will attend the meeting, reported the BBC.