By Mehmet Solmaz
TAMWORTH, England (AA) - A hotel which temporarily accommodates asylum seekers and migrants was set on fire by a group of violent protesters on Sunday evening in Tamworth, England.
Authorities managed to put the fire out and take security measures in the area early Monday.
“Police officers were faced with being attacked with petrol bombs and fireworks and damage was caused to the hotel by protesters, with the lives of residents inside put at risk. Fortunately, no one inside was injured,” Tamworth police said in a statement.
The Holiday Inn in Tamworth was the second hotel to be targeted by the far-right on Sunday. The hotel had previously been reported on by the British media over allegations that asylum seekers housed in the hotel were constantly facing racist attacks by some locals.
“Projectiles were thrown and officers were targeted with violence, leading to officers being assaulted. One officer suffered a suspected broken arm,” the police statement said.
On social media, one local commented on the attackers: “My 20-year-old police officer nephew was at the Tamworth incident and ended up in hospital along with 20 other officers with head injuries, broken arms, and ribs etc. Some were doused in petrol and threatened with being set on fire and throats slit. Normal law-abiding citizens (did this)?”
Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Ellison said: “I want to echo the messaging that police forces have been championing nationally following the events across the country this week: We will be using footage from CCTV, air support and our officers’ body-worn video devices to identify those responsible and seek the toughest possible punishment for these acts of senseless violence.”
- Far-right figures ‘using’ poor people as ‘pawns’
Stuart Russell, a local engineer, told Anadolu that a small group of people and he also gathered outside the hotel for a counter-protest for a short time before being attacked by the far-right group.
Russell said he respects different views and the frustrations of angry crowds, but that does not mean the solution is violence.
“This sentiment, this anti-migrant rhetoric that has been pushed in our country, you know, probably for 30 years, this is what it's led to.”
Russell argued that “everything in this country is crumbling,” pointing to the poor living conditions of lower socioeconomic classes and the lack of good health care services and employment.
He said far-right figures are trying to exploit the country's socioeconomic issues.
“Like groups that are run by people like Tommy Robinson and people like Nigel Farage, who've made a career out of blaming individual groups of people to gain a foothold in politics, have used these people. They've used their anger.
“And it's a shame, really, because I think what the people who are angry would find is that they've got more in common with me and the people in that hotel than they have with Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage, who actually are just using them as pawns to get this job done of having their political group take over power in this country; and their lives won't be any better.”
He added: “They won't have better hospitals and schools and jobs and more money. They won’t, it will still be the same. There'll just be less people of color within the communities, because they've been kicked out.”