Far-right rioters targeting Plymouth, England clash with anti-racism protesters, police

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – Continuing days of unrest, hundreds of far-right rioters clashed with anti-racism protesters and police in Plymouth, southwestern England on Monday evening.

At least seven people were arrested by police, who tried to keep the two groups separated.

Organized by far-right groups including the anti-Muslim and xenophobic English Defense League (EDL) on social media platforms and messaging apps, the rioters gathered in the city center starting in the early afternoon.

Another group organized by anti-racism platforms was also in the city center to hold a counter protest.

Several police officers were injured in skirmishes between the two sides, and a police van was damaged.

According to the latest numbers, more than 400 people have been arrested by the police for getting involved in violent riots across the country over the last several days.

- 'Not a protest, pure violence'

After chairing a Cobra emergency response committee meeting with senior police officials, Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned those taking part in riots of the full force of the law.

“This is not protest, it is pure violence,” he wrote on X, adding: “We will have a standing army of public duty officers.”

“We will ramp up criminal justice. We will apply criminal law online as well as offline. We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities.”

The UK has been gripped by far-right riots for days, with violent mobs spewing racist and Islamophobic vitriol and targeting Muslims, minority groups, and migrants.

The riots were fueled by online misinformation that a suspect arrested after a fatal stabbing in Southport, England last week was a Muslim asylum seeker, a claim which was false.

Three young girls were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack as they attended a dance class last Monday.

Two hotels occupied by asylum seekers were attacked by rioters in Rotherham and Tamworth.

Far-right groups are reorganizing for more violence targeting asylum and immigration centers in London and across the country on Wednesday.

“There will be a reckoning for criminals & thugs who took part in violence on streets, burning buildings, attacks on mosques, looting shops & the whipping up of racist violence online,” Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also warned the far-right rioters on X.

“They do not speak for Britain & they’ll pay the price for their crime.”