Far-right protesters clashed with British police during tense rallies on Saturday as unrest linked to misinformation about a mass stabbing that killed three young girls spread across the UK.
The violence, which has seen scores of arrests across England and put Britain’s Muslim community on edge, presents the biggest challenge yet of Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s month-old premiership.
It has also put hard-right agitators linked to football hooliganism in the spotlight at a time when anti-immigration elements are enjoying some electoral success in British politics.
Demonstrators threw chairs, flares and bricks at officers in the northwestern English city of Liverpool, while scuffles between police and protesters broke out in nearby Manchester.
Merseyside Police said “a number of officers have been injured as they deal with serious disorder” in Liverpool city center.
According to the BBC, protesters smashed the windows of a hotel which has been used to house migrants in the northeastern city of Hull, where police said three officers had been injured and four people arrested.
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In Belfast, Northern Ireland, fireworks were thrown amid tense exchanges between an anti-Islam group and an anti-racism rally.
In Leeds, around 150 people carrying English flags chanted, “You’re not English any more” while counter-protesters shouted “Nazi scum off our streets”. Opposing groups of protesters also faced off in the central city of Nottingham.
The skirmishes marked the fourth day of unrest in several towns and cities in the wake of Monday’s frenzied knife attack in Southport, near Liverpool on England’s northwest coast.
They were fueled by false rumours on social media about the background of British-born 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, charged with several counts of murder and attempted murder over the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party.
Rudakubana is accused of killing Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and injuring another 10 people.
Starmer has accused “thugs” of “hijacking” the nation’s grief to “sow hatred” and pledged that anyone carrying out violent acts would “face the full force of the law”.
Violence first rocked Southport late on Tuesday, where a mob threw bricks at a mosque, prompting hundreds of Muslim places of worship across the country to step up security amid fears of more anti-Islamic demonstrations.
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