Supporters of the English Defence League have thrown items at a mosque during a protest in Southport this evening, according to police.
A police riot van has also been set on fire as crowds, believed to include supporters of the far-right group, gathered at a protest that turned violent in the Merseyside town. One police officer has also suffered a broken nose after being hit with a object thrown by the crowd.
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Video on social media showed more police arriving in Southport, where officers with riot shields are in a stand-off with protesters. Some police officers were seen walking through crowds with police dogs towards lines of officers who are stood in front of police vans. Debris can be seen on the ground around the vans while police have been using their shields to deflect missiles thrown from the crowds. Smoke canisters have also been used. Multiple police cars and vans, blue lights flashing and sirens blaring are patrolling local streets, with hundreds of onlookers gathering in the area.
One witness at the scene said a man has been seriously injured after being hit by a flying object. They said: "A man knocked on our door screaming for help, his head was split open and pouring with blood. He was asking for a towel to help stop the blood. Someone had thrown a brick towards police and it hit him in the face. It was terrifying, my young child was stood behind me and seen it."
Bunch of thugs. I hope the law comes down on them like a ton of bricks. This is the absolute last thing the community needed after such an appalling slaughter.
But my worry is that in the usual (and justified) condemnation of these bastards we’re going to miss the wood for the trees.
There are real and profound divisions and tensions in this country. This is a manifestation of that. We’ve got real problems of Islamist and Far-Right radicals that we appear to just be completely ignoring and doing nothing to prevent. We’ve got pressure groups like The Muslim Vote who are engaging in sectarian Islamist politics on the one hand while Reform and even darker forces are developing in response, which is why these thugs turned up outside a Mosque – fake news spread on Twitter about the identity of the man who stabbed those kids. British Jews are terrified and wondering whether they have any future in this country. We've got riots and brawls breaking out in cities like Leicester between people of Indian and Pakistani descent, the sectarian politics of India, Hindutva and Pakistan played out in Britain.
We’ve got major problems of community cohesion and our approach to multiculturalism, insofar as we have one, clearly isn’t working.
I hope Labour will begin to address this… Communal solidarity is so crucial to this country
My bet is these thugs came from all over the UK as well 🤢🤮