London, June 25
At least three businesses, including an Asian-owned news agent’s shop, a sex shop and a pub were fire-bombed and cars set alight last night in fresh racial clashes in Lancashire town of Burnley, northwest of England, the police said today.
Scores of policemen in riot gear tried to keep the rioting Asian and white youths apart into the early hours of this morning in the predominantly Asian Stoneyholme area of the town. A police helicopter hovered over the area keeping a strict vigil.
A spokesman of the Lancashire police headquarters said efforts were on to bring together leaders of the two communities to ensure that there is no recurrence of the rioting.
It was the second night of violence between whites and Asians. Trouble first broke out on Saturday morning when a taxi driver was the target of a racially motivated attack.
The trouble follows the Oldham riots earlier this month when the police blamed the British National Party for stoking up racial tensions in the town.
Burnley’s Asian community leaders said the skirmishes were spontaneous and sparked by a dispute over loud music being played. An Asian family asked white partygoers next door to turn music down. Some whites allegedly responded with threats, saying, “We will sort you out.”
That was followed by an attack on an Asian taxi driver by a gang of whites. He suffered a broken cheekbone. Policemen were treating both attacks as being racially motivated.
The town, with a 6 per cent ethnic minority community of mainly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, has no history of racial tension.
But the right extremist British National Party gained a surprise 11.2 per cent of the vote in the June 7 election fuelling the tension and community leaders warned that violence could continue if outside forces actively came to the area to stir
tension. PTI
