A total of 15 people have been arrested after rioting broke out on Friday night during a demonstration and counter-demonstration outside a reception hotel for asylum seekers in Knowsley, on the outskirts of Liverpool, police said.
Anti-asylum seeker protesters and participants in a counter-demonstration gathered outside the Suites Hotel on Ribblers Lane following the arrival of a new group of migrants and a police van was set on fire and objects were thrown in the scuffle.
«At around 6.30pm officers were deployed during a peaceful demonstration and the counter demonstration,» a police spokesman explained.
«Unfortunately, shortly afterwards several people who did not belong to the original protest group revolted and it is clear that they were only interested in causing trouble by using violence and intimidation without any reasoning or care against several people and also against our officers,» he said. The detainees are between 13 and 54 years old, according to the authorities.
The MP for Knowsley, Sir George Howarth, said that the demonstration is due to «an alleged incident on social networks» and criticized reports that immigrants had «feather beds» in this hotel.
Chief Constable Serena Kennedy explained that «rumors and misinformation» were spread on social networks due to an alleged assault by a man on a teenage girl last Monday.
The founder of the NGO Care4Calais, Clare Moseley, has explained that she herself was present among the 120 people who gathered at the site to protest the anti-immigration demonstration, reports Sky News.
Moseley has denounced that «ultra-right-wingers» set fire to a police van that ended up «exploding». «We heard that there were going to be far-right people and we didn’t want the people in the hotel to be scared and not be alone,» he has pointed out. «It was a war zone,» he reiterated.
Later, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned that «the alleged behavior of some asylum seekers is not an excuse for violence and intimidation.» «I condemn last night’s regrettable riots in Knowsley,» Braverman said on Twitter.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
