Far-right militants raid migrant accommodation hotel in Rotherham

Madrid. Masked far-right militants stormed a hotel in the northern English town of Rotherham on Sunday, a building used to house immigrants, in a new day of riots and protests against immigration.

Protesters gathered outside the Holiday Inn hotel smashed the building’s windows and set fire to items on one of its facades despite the police presence, British media reported. Protesters also threw objects at officers, including chairs, and images were broadcast of a police officer being treated inside the hotel. Eventually, protesters managed to break into the building.

Meanwhile, in Liverpool, where a bookshop was burnt down, and Southport, two Section 60 Orders were in place from 2pm on Sunday until 2am on Monday, giving officers exceptional powers to stop and search suspicious individuals to prevent an escalation of violence.

There were also riots in places like Cleveland, where a group of protesters broke through a police cordon at 3 p.m. and caused several businesses in the city center to close.

Protests also took place in Middlesbrough on Sunday afternoon.

In Bristol, police have reported 16 arrests and launched an investigation into violent disturbances in the city centre last night. Charges have been brought against them including affray, racially aggravated public disorder, animal cruelty, assaulting an emergency services worker and violent disorder. A police horse was punched and two police dogs were kicked.

“We have a long tradition of facilitating peaceful protest in Bristol, but what we saw last night was not a protest and we will never accept such disgraceful scenes,” said Bristol Police Chief Inspector Vicks Hayward-Melen. “Those responsible can expect us to be on their doorstep soon. We will identify and bring to justice those responsible for this criminal violence and disorder.”

More than a hundred people were arrested on Saturday in riots during far-right rallies, which were often met with anti-fascist counter-demonstrations.

Street violence fuelled by far-right groups diverts resources, police say

Police warned Sunday that efforts to deal with violence that has erupted in cities and towns in recent days following a knife attack at a dance class that left three girls dead and several injured meant other crimes may not be properly investigated.

The warning came a day after dozens of people were arrested following clashes between far-right activists and anti-racism protesters across Britain. Violence was reported across the UK, from the Northern Irish capital Belfast to Liverpool in north-west England and Bristol in the west. More arrests were expected as police reviewed CCTV footage, social media and body cameras worn by officers.

Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotherdam said the attack was not just against the building but “against our very community” and “an insult to those families still grieving and survivors trying to come to terms with Monday’s attack”.

More gatherings were planned for Sunday and police will maintain a significant security deployment, with thousands more officers on the streets, many in riot gear. Police have also made more prison cells available and are using surveillance and facial recognition technology.

“We are seeing officers being removed from everyday policing,” Tiffany Lynch of the Police Federation of England and Wales told the BBC. “But while this is happening, the populations out there are having incidents against them, they are victims of crimes, unfortunately those crimes are not being investigated.”

Violence erupted this week, ostensibly in protest against Monday’s attack in Southport. A 17-year-old boy was arrested.

False rumours that the young man was Muslim and an immigrant spread online, fuelling outrage among far-right supporters. Although suspects under 18 are not usually identified in Britain, Judge Andrew Menary ordered Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified in part to stem the spread of misinformation.

Police said many of the gatherings were being organised online by secretive far-right groups who were mobilising support with slogans such as “enough is enough”, “save our children” and “stop the boats”. Counter-demonstrations by the organisation Stand Up To Racism were also expected.

Calls for protests have come from a loose group of social media accounts, but a key person in amplifying them has been Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a veteran far-right agitator who goes by the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defence League, which Merseyside police linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, the day after the dance class attack. The group emerged around 2009, when it led a series of protests against what it described as militant Islam that often descended into violence.

The group’s membership and impact declined after a few years and Yaxley-Lennon, 41, faced successive legal problems. He was jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud, and now faces an arrest warrant after leaving the country last week ahead of a hearing on a contempt of court case against him.

Many also singled out Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform Britain, for indirectly fuelling the anti-immigrant sentiment that has been evident in recent days. While he condemned the violence, he criticised the government for blaming it on “a few far-right scoundrels” and said “the far right is a reaction to fear… shared by tens of millions of people”.

Far-right protesters have been involved in several violent riots since the stabbing. On Tuesday they clashed with police outside a mosque in Southport, close to the scene of the gruesome attack, and the next day they threw beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London. Many Southport residents have expressed outrage at the organised acts of violence in the wake of the tragedy.

Monday’s attack on children taking part in a Taylor Swift-themed summer dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and persistent problem, though mass stabbings are rare.

Rudakubana has been charged with murder in the attack that killed Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He is also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults who were injured.

The country’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, blamed the violence on “far-right hatred” and vowed to end the chaos. He added that police across the UK would be given more resources to end “a breakdown of law and order on our streets.”

Police minister Diana Johnson told the BBC there was “no need” to mobilise the army to assist police in their efforts to control the violence.

“The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at this time,” he said.