Buildings torched in fresh race violence
A third night of racial violence in Burnley has seen buildings set alight as police try to keep gangs of white and Asian youths apart.
Officers in riot gear and carrying shields were deployed alongside units on horseback amid sporadic attacks on property and vehicles.
Trouble in the Lancashire town was ignited after a gang of white men allegedly surrounded an Asian taxi driver and attacked him with a hammer early on Saturday.
Minor disturbances followed later the same day but the situation worsened on Sunday night - although the situation appeared to be calming after several hours.
White youths and spectators began drifting home around midnight while Asian leaders asked young men of their community to do the same.
A police helicopter hovered overhead monitoring the situation on streets littered with broken glass and debris
Police blamed
Blame for the weekend's violence was put on police by Asian community leaders, who said it had taken 30 minutes to respond to the alleged attack on the taxi driver.
The minor clashes that followed on Saturday night saw police pelted with missiles and a pub's windows smashed.
Sunday remained mostly quiet during the day, apart from another taxi driver suffering minor facial injuries when a brick was hurled through his windscreen.
But tensions rose again in the evening, with an Asian newsagent's shop and a car set ablaze and two other vehicles overturned.
Earlier a large group of white men shouting racist abuse was reported to have walked towards a mosque.
They were met by a group of Asian youths who hurled bricks and bottles, some of which hit a small number of riot police caught between the two groups.
Sex shop attacked
Meanwhile a sex shop was fire-bombed by Asian youths - reportedly in retaliation for the attack on the newsagent, located in a white neighbourhood.
Around 150 Asian youths gathered near a football pitch, claiming they were ready to defend their community against white attacks.
Two pubs, the Baltic and Duke of York - which was targeted on Saturday night - were attacked after claims they were meeting places for white racists.
Community leader Shahid Malik, who appealed to local Asians to go home, condemned the violence but said it was a reaction to serious provocation.
"This has been a tragic weekend for Burnley and we must now work to rebuild things."
Mr Malik added that many of the Asian youths were satisfied that two pubs seen as hotbeds of racism had been attacked.
He said: "I do not condone such attacks but there is a feeling that these were places where racists met and were used as bases to carry out attacks, the most recent being an incident today when a taxi driver had a brick thrown through his windscreen as he passed the Baltic."
The police had done "very well" and tried to handle the situation sensitively, he added.
'Random' attacks
Earlier one white man among the onlookers drawn onto the streets by the disturbances, who did not wish to be named, said: "We are not here to cause trouble but the police are stopping us walking around our own town."
"I've got no problem with Asian people - I work with them and have lived alongside them all my life.
"But if we do get gangs of them charging through here and attacking people and cars and houses randomly then you would expect us to defend ourselves."
The trouble comes after race riots in the
Lancashire town of Oldham in May.
-- Anonymous, June 24, 2001