Windows are smashed as trouble flares during an anti-immigration riot. (Image: Sky news)
After breaking in through a window, the rioters attempted to set the hotel on fire, before blockading the exit with bins.
At least one police official was injured after a massive crowd of anti-immigration rioters smashed the windows of a hotel accommodating asylum seekers in UK’s Rotherham on Sunday, reported the Sky news.
The demonstrators wearing masks smashed the windows, while objects, including pieces of wood and chairs, were thrown at police officers who were lined up in front of Holiday Inn hotel, located on the outskirts of Rotherham in South Yorkshire. The injured cop was carried away by his colleagues.
The mob, draped in England and Union Jack flags, gathered outside the hotel chanting anti-migrant slogans. Tensions escalated after the protesters started hurling objects at police officers, forcing them to retreat.
After breaking in through a window, the rioters attempted to set the hotel on fire, before blockading the exit with bins. Riot police were able to move them away from the entrance, but the mob moved around the side, throwing rocks and debris at the windows.
The protesters then flooded the ground floor of the hotel through the broken windows before setting a fire on the ground floor.
Tiffany Lynch, from the Police Federation of England and Wales, told the BBC, “We’re seeing officers that are being pulled from day-to-day policing. But while that’s happening, the communities that are out there that are having incidents against them — victims of crime — unfortunately, their crimes are not being investigated.”
The hotel is reported to have been used to house migrants – but it is not clear if any remain living there after the previous Conservative administration vowed to close more than one hundred this year.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has ordered the police to take any necessary action to respond to rioters attempting to “sow hate” after scenes of disorder in England and Northern Ireland hit earlier this week.
According to the skynewsover 100 people have been arrested after riots broke out in the wake of the death of three young girls at a dance studio in Southport.
