Fear of far-right protest forces some shops in NE London to board up, close early

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) – Fearing threats to safety and possible looting, some businesses in northeast London decided to close shop early, hours before a planned far-right protest is set to take place.

Walthamstow is among more than 30 locations across England where far-right rioters are expected to show up late Wednesday amid ongoing violent disorder in towns and cities across the country.

The protest by far-right rioters, expected to start at 8 p.m. local time (1900GMT), spurred some shops to board up to avoid damage or looting while some are already closed, and others were boarded up in the middle of the day, hours before the start of the protests.

Speaking to Anadolu, shop owners expressed concern over what could be happening tonight and said the area is quieter than usual, most likely due to a fear of violence.

Danyal, who works in Walthamstow, said that he has not seen a lot of people today, calling it a "weird morning."

Saying that he is starting to see increased police presence in the area, he confirmed that some shop owners decided to close early.

"For us as a business, we're looking to close early today, we spoke to a few of the locals. They're looking to close up early as well ... a lot of shops are being boarded up as well just to avoid any damage," he added.

"So far, it's been pretty quiet, but you can sense a lot of tension building up and heavy police presence as well," he noted.

Asked whether he is worried, as a local, what could happen, he said: "Yeah, of course, I think we all are. No one wants to engage in any violence."

"If you do want to get a message across, you know, do it a peaceful way where you don't cause damage to people. So far, what's been going on up and down the country, it doesn't look like you'll be a peaceful one," said Danyal, referring to days of violence after a stabbing incident was falsely blamed on a Muslim asylum seeker.

Reiterating that the police presence in the area makes them feel safer, he added, however: "We never know what can happen. So it's important we all stick together as a community for each other, and don't let these people win, that's pretty much it to be fair."

Neil Ewen, a real estate manager, told Anadolu that all local businesses are concerned about the welfare of their workers.

"The main thing if people want to protest, it's up to them, but seeing what we see on the news right now, it's just all about the safety of the people that are working for me so and the people in the area. So that's the main concern," he said.

Asked about the government's response to the riots so far, Ewen said he thinks they can only try their best as it is "an unpredictable situation."

"You don't know if anything is actually going to happen or not, but based upon what we've seen so far, the probability of things going wrong is quite high. So you just want to make sure that, I think there's a lot of presence from the police, though. So, you know, I think that they've done well, but you don't know till the end of it," he added.

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

The riots were fueled by false claims spread online that a suspect arrested for the July 29 fatal stabbing of three children in Southport was a Muslim asylum seeker.

Authorities have since identified the attacker as Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales to Rwandan parents, but this has done little to deter the far-right mobs.