|
Night of violence in UK town
BURNLEY, England (CNN) -- A newsagent's shop, pub, sex shop and at least five cars were set alight in a third night of violence in the north west English town of Burnley. Riot police took to the streets to keep gangs of Asian and white youths apart. Tensions between whites and Asians have been high during recent days, but it was not clear whether race was the cause of Sunday's violence. Burnley is 20 miles from Oldham, the scene of race riots last month. "There is no way of knowing," said Caroline Emberton, information officer with the Lancashire constabulary. "I couldn't say what sparked tonight's activity." She said one was injured and no one was arrested in the incidents, and none of the incidents was major. Two rival groups of Asian youths and white youths had gathered preparing to face off, "but were not allowed to get together, because the police prevented them from doing that." The violence began about 8 p.m. on Sunday and abated around 1 a.m. on Monday, she said. In recent nights, there have been several outbreaks of violence, but not all of them appear to have been racially motivated, Emberton said. In one, a group of Asians fought another group of Asians. In another, a fight between Asians and whites over a noisy party resulted in injuries, she said. In a third outbreak of violence, an Asian taxi driver was attacked by a group of white youths, Emberton said. Police were working closely with community members to defuse tensions, she said. Community leaders said police were slow to respond to the attack on the taxi driver on Saturday night, which was followed by two hours of disturbances when gangs pelted police with stones. Late on Sunday night a police helicopter hovered in the sky as a plume of thick smoke rose from the burning newsagent's shop. Five cars were set alight and two other vehicles turned on their roofs. The streets were littered with debris. A second Asian taxi driver suffered minor facial injuries on Sunday when a brick was hurled through his windscreen. Shahid Malik, a community leader in close contact with the youths, said: "This has been a tragic weekend for Burnley and we must now work to rebuild things." Burnley has a population of around 92,000, including 6,000 people from ethnic minorities, mainly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Back to the top |
© 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. |