Anti-immigration protesters smashed hotel windows and set fire to bins in northern England today in the latest wave of unrest in a major test for new Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government.
Violent protests involving hundreds of anti-immigration demonstrators erupted in cities across the UK after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a children's dance class in Southport, north-west England, last Sunday.
The killings were exploited by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups as misinformation spread that the suspected attacker was an immigrant and a radical Islamist.
Police said the suspect was born in Great Britain.
Media reports state that his family is Christian.
Violent rioting broke out in cities across the country including Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester on Saturday, resulting in dozens of arrests as shops and businesses were vandalized and looted and several police officers injured, police said in a statement.
The government has promised harsh actions against people who participate in violence.
Hundreds of anti-immigration protesters gathered outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers near Rotherham in northern England today.
Demonstrators pelted police with bricks and broke several hotel windows, a witness told Reuters, before setting the bins on fire.
Dozens of other protesters gathered outside another such hotel in Aldershot, southern England.
In Rotherham and the northwestern city of Lancaster, there were anti-racist counter-demonstrators, with police keeping the two groups separate.
As protests began in Bolton, near Manchester, police said officers had been given extra powers to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Chief Inspector Natasha Evans, from Greater Manchester Police, said police there would continue to increase their presence to deal with any incidents.
Last weekend's protests followed several days of unrest.
Starmer, a former attorney general who took office a month ago after his Labor party swept the election to victory over the long-ruling Conservatives, said the riots were the result of deliberate actions by the far right, coordinated by "a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence ", not a legitimate protest.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Saturday that "those who take part in criminal disorder face the harshest possible penalties".
The last time violent protests broke out across Britain was in 2011, when thousands of people took to the streets after the police in London killed a black man.
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