Police in the northern English city of Rotherham struggled to hold back a group of far-right activists on Sunday, who broke into a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers.

The disturbance is the latest in a series of violent protests by anti-immigration groups in British towns and cities this week after three girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport in northwest England on Monday.

Footage aired on British TV showed officers with shields targeted by a barrage of projectiles outside the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Rotherham, near Sheffield.

A few minutes later, the protesters can be seen storming the building and removing chairs from inside to use as weapons.

A small fire was also visible while windows in the hotel were smashed.

At least one officer was injured in the confrontation.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The police have a lot to answer for here.

    During peaceful protests they are happy to storm in and arrest people for simply protesting, whereas people looking to destroy property and attack people are being greeted by half a dozen officers. Here in Bristol protestors were held back by a counter-protest, because there were THREE officers at the scene.

    Counter this with the riots that took place here after the police stormed a peaceful protest, and the police worked tirelessly to find anyone and everyone involved - in some cases rightly so. If the same effort isn’t placed here then something is fundamentally wrong.