Terror stalks Britain’s streets

Terrified asylum-seekers told how 10 rioters ran through the corridors of their hotel, shouting obscenities.

Children were among anti-migration rioters throwing objects toward police in Rotherham on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

Launching themselves past mounted police and riot officers, men in balaclavas pushed through the shattered window of the dining room at the Holiday Inn ­Express in Rotherham and ­marauded through the corridors where 130 terrified migrants live.

Eight rioters, part of a rally of 500, set the building on fire and blocked an emergency exit.

As police rushed to clear the doorways and get the asylum-seekers housed there – men predominantly from the Middle East and Africa – to safety, rioters hurled rocks and ­debris, smashing the windows of the building.

At least one injured officer was carried away by colleagues.

The attacks on police and the hotel in northern England on Sunday (Monday AEST) were the latest in a weekend of chaos after last Monday’s fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport.

The Home Office has contracted the hotel to house 130 asylum-seekers since 2022.

On Sunday terrified asylum-seekers told how 10 rioters ran through the corridors shouting obscenities at them.

“They came into this floor and hit me until the police drove them down the corridor,” one said.

A man believed to be a a resident at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel, which houses asylum-seekers, gestures as anti-migration protesters attack the hotel in Rotherham on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

Another, a 55-year-old Palestinian, said he had rocks thrown at his bedroom windows.

“A shirtless man was shouting and making so much noise,” he said. “They broke the windows. There were eight on my floor.”

A 27-year-old asylum-seeker from Botswana, who has been in the UK for two years, said: “It was my first time and they meant business.

“They took chairs outside and threw them at the police.

“I wanted to cry ... Maybe if they met me somewhere like in the shop they’ll do something bad to me. I’m scared to go out.”

Earlier, about 100 counter- protesters from the Stand Up To Racism group gathered at the hotel but left swiftly when more than 2000 anti-migration protesters arrived at noon.

With police vastly outnumbered, the demonstration turned violent just before 1pm as members of the crowd, many in masks, began hurling ­objects at the hotel.

To shouts of “get them out” and “Yorkshire”, officers in riot gear were pushed back by groups of young men who began goading them with rising ferocity.

Fire ­extinguishers, chairs, metal fencing and wooden posts were hurled at officers as groups of men smashed windows on the hotel’s ground floor. At least three children were accompanying protesters outside as a man in shorts, black balaclava and black gloves kicked through a glass door.

Anti-migration protesters, above, and below, attempt to enter the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Rotherham. Pictures: Getty Images

ROTHERHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 4: Anti-migration protesters attempt to enter the Holiday Inn Express Hotel which is housing asylum seekers on August 4, 2024 in Rotherham, United Kingdom. Yesterday saw widespread violence as Far-right agitators in Liverpool and Manchester rioted and looted shops. Police were attacked and injured and dozens of arrests were made. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

As concerned occupants of the hotel could be seen looking out to the streets, protesters smashed a door and began to enter the premises. As onlookers shouted encouragement, two wheelie bins stacked on top of each other with other items were then set alight ­directly outside a broken door.

Some members of the crowd shouted “burn it down”, as a rain of rocks was thrown by the mob at windows, smashing several.

More police arrived about 3pm, as rioters tried to rip off the police vehicles’ wing mirrors and rocked them from side to side. A youth hurled a rock at a police horse.

South Yorkshire police managed to push the crowds away as reinforcement arrived.

A video, apparently taken by migrants inside the hotel, showed men sitting on a stairwell; one appearing to be holding a machete.

“They’re just hooligans aren’t they? They’re just thugs who have come to cause trouble,” said one woman, in her 40s, who lives on a street near the hotel.

Sarah Needham, 27, a mother of one from Lingwood, a 15-minute drive from the hotel, was out to protest peacefully.

“It’s the safety of this country,” she said. “Other countries are laughing at us, ­especially now when there’s no funding for anything.

“Britain was supposed to be called Great Britain, but what is so great about Britain today?”

Ms Needham condemned the violence: “These officers have got families, they’ve got kids and mums. I’m also having a peaceful protest but there is absolutely no need to hurt people in the process.”

Several men were seen attacking police cars, and one officer had a riot shield stolen, but the officers regained control and reduced the unrest to a series of street skirmishes that continued into the evening.

Clashes between protesters and the police also took place in Middlesbrough, where more than 300 people marched at a cenotaph in the town centre from 2pm, forcing businesses to close early.

Skirmishes broke out with police as the crowd began to proceed through the town to chants of “we want our country back”.

A march organiser, Jake Wheatley, addressed the crowd before the march began, saying: “You are all here today lads for the three kids who were killed in Southport and the future of our country. It is not about race or colour or religion. Let’s all keep it right today and stand up for our country, our kids and our families.”

The crowd dispersed, but soon after a group descended on the Gresham area, home to much of the town’s immigrant population, attacking cars and homes. Masked youths used metal and wooden bars to smash the windows of terraced houses and the windscreens of cars.

One victim, a white man in his 40s, had his living room window broken. “I’m born and bred in Middlesbrough and these morons target my house just for the hell of it,” he said.

Wheelie bins were set alight and pushed into a line of riot police. TV news video showed gangs of Asian men attacking lone white people in the town centre, in retaliation for the violence.

There were running clashes in Bolton town centre as police struggled to separate anti-immigration protesters and a group from the town’s Asian community. An anti-immigration protest had gathered outside the town hall at 1pm, with tensions erupting 30 minutes later when a group of up to 300 counter-protesters ­arrived, most dressed in black.

In Weymouth, Dorset, about 100 Stand Up to Racism protesters faced a far-right demonstration and said bottles were thrown at them. Police were able to disperse the crowd outside the King’s Statue with police vehicles and officers forming a barrier to prevent the protest advancing further.

About 30 co-ordinated rallies opposing “mass immigration” have taken place across ­England and Ireland after being organised on social media. Routes have been published centring on several mosques in northern ­England.

In Hull, hundreds of men were seen holding Union flags marching towards a Kurdish-owned car business. Vehicles were set alight, with the tyres of half a dozen slashed and windows destroyed, leaving at least one person injured.

The Times