More than fifty police officers were injured in violent clashes in the English city of Southport (AFP)
London:
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet senior police leaders on Thursday, his office said, after a second night of clashes between protesters and police following the deaths of three young girls in a frenzied knife attack during a dance class.
There were angry scenes in London on Wednesday evening as thousands of anti-immigration protesters gathered near Starmer’s Downing Street office and residence, chanting “save our children” and “we want our country back”.
The night before, more than fifty police officers were injured in violent clashes in the English seaside resort of Southport, where the stabbings took place on Monday.
A 17-year-old man was in police custody on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after Monday’s bloody rampage at a ‘Taylor Swift yoga and dance workshop’, a summer holiday event for children aged 6 to 11.
Starmer’s office said he would use Thursday’s meeting with police to “provide them with the government’s full support following multiple high-profile incidents of extreme violence and public disorder on our streets”.
“While the right to peaceful protest must be protected at all costs, he will be clear that criminals who exploit that right to incite hatred and commit acts of violence will face the full force of the law,” his office added.
The disorder occurred after false information was spread on social media that the suspect was a radical Islamist migrant.
Police are legally limited in the details they can give about the alleged teenage attacker, but they have said the incident was not terrorism-related and that he was born in Britain, suppressing speculation about his origins.
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