LONDON – The United Kingdom (UK) seems to be in the grip of unrest as a group of far-right activists broke into a hotel believed to be housing asylum-seekers on Sunday.
The severity of the protests could be gauged form the fact that recently three girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport in northwest England, triggering unrest in British towns and cities.
The Holiday Inn Express hotel in Rotherham, near Sheffield garnered spotlight as videos showed officers with shields targeted by a barrage of projectiles outside the facility.
Consequently, the protesters could be seen storming the building and removing chairs from inside to use as weapons. The horrific scenes also depicted a small fire while windows in the hotel were smashed.
The violence is not limited to a single spot in the city as Staffordshire police confirmed that another hotel believed to have sheltered asylum-seekers was targeted near Birmingham.
An official statement in this regard said that a large group of individuals have been throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires and targeting police at the hotel in the town of Tamworth; one officer was also left injured in the confrontation.
It is to be highlighted that media reports imply that there were more anti-immigration protests and counter-demonstrations elsewhere, including the northeastern city of Middlesborough.
In the cities of Liverpool, Bolton and Southport, extra ordinary measures were taken as the police were granted the right to issue dispersal orders, permitting them to stop protests from taking place on Sunday.
Commenting on the developments, newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the events as “far-right thuggery.”
“We will do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice,” said Starmer.
“These thugs are mobile, they move from community to community, and we must have a police response that can do the same,” he added.
“Mosques being attacked because they’re mosques — the far-right are showing who they are. We have to show who we are in response to that,” Starmer noted.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper branded the “criminal, violent attack” on the hotel utterly appalling adding that police had full Government support for the strongest action against those responsible.
As far as the arrests are concerned, around 100 people were arrested after far-right rallies in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Blackpool and Hull, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.
