news

[Global Times Special Correspondent in the UK Ji Shuangcheng, Global Times Special Correspondent Zhen Xiang] Protesters confronted and clashed violently with police on the streets, cars were smashed or set on fire, and black smoke filled the streets... On July 30, local time, in the coastal town of Southport (formerly translated as Southport) in northwest England, protesters and police clashed violently, resulting in more than 20 police officers injured. The fuse of this riot was that a number of children in a local dance class were stabbed to death or injured by the murderer the day before. At present, three children have been killed, and five children and two adults are still in danger of death. The last major attack on children in the UK occurred in 1996, when a murderer shot and killed 16 kindergarten children and a teacher in a school gymnasium in Scotland. Subsequently, the UK enacted stricter gun control laws and became one of the countries with the strictest gun management in the West. However, gun control has not completely stopped the wave of crime in the UK. Especially in recent times, there have been frequent murders with knives or crossbows in the UK. These incidents are intertwined with issues such as immigration, racial discrimination, and religion in the UK, and have occasionally triggered violent protests and other riots. On July 30, British Prime Minister Starmer went to the scene where three children were killed to mourn. "How many more children will die?" A local resident at the scene shouted at him, "Our children are dead, and you're just going to leave like this?"

On July 30, riots broke out in Southport, England, with protesters clashing violently with police. (Visual China)

British Prime Minister says "all-out efforts to deal with rioters"

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, hundreds of people in Southport, England, took to the streets on July 30 to protest against the stabbing of several children the day before and the incitement of online rumors. They had violent clashes with police officers who came to maintain order. Protesters tried to storm a local mosque and threw Molotov cocktails, fireworks, bricks and stones at the police. A local supermarket was also damaged. Videos uploaded to social media showed that at the scene of the conflict, police cars and several cars caught fire and thick smoke billowed in the streets. According to local police, more than 20 police officers were injured in the clashes with protesters, including eight with serious injuries, including fractures, lacerations and concussions. In addition, two police dogs were hit by bricks and one was burned.

British Prime Minister Starmer, who went to Southport to mourn the dead children that day, strongly condemned the "mob behavior", saying that these "mobs" hijacked the peaceful mourning event held in Southport that day, and said that "law enforcement agencies will do their best to deal with the rioters."

Before the clash between protesters and police, residents of Southport held a mourning event for the three children who were killed. People placed flowers and stuffed toys near the site of the incident to commemorate the incident. Local councillor Hurley said the whole town was in shock and mourning, "This is the most horrific atrocity Southport has ever experienced." He said it was a "very small town and everyone is affected by this incident."

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a report to MPs in Parliament on July 31: "It is difficult to understand or put into words the horror of what has happened. What should have been a joyous start to the summer has turned into an unspeakable tragedy."

According to the British Metropolis, the police said that the three children killed were 9-year-old Alice Aguiar, 7-year-old Elsie Stancombe and 6-year-old Bebe King. "Keep smiling, keep dancing, just like you like to be our princess," Aguiar's parents said in an interview, "You will always be our princess, and no one can change that." Bebe King's parents said: "No words can describe the grief of losing our little daughter Bebe." The dance class where the murdered girls were was based on the theme of American singer Taylor Swift. Swift posted on social media that she was "completely shocked" and "still immersed in the horror of the incident." "They are just children in the dance class... I have no idea how to express my condolences to their families."

The Independent revealed that in addition to the three children killed, two adults and eight children were injured, two of whom were in critical condition and are currently receiving treatment in the hospital. Among the seriously injured adults, one was Lucas, a female yoga teacher who was responsible for organizing the dance class. She was seriously injured because she tried to protect the children when the incident happened.

Far-right groups spread rumors

According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian on July 31, after the child was stabbed, a large number of false rumors on social media had a negative impact on the local area. The police said that the thugs who participated in the burning of police cars and other cars on the 30th were members and supporters of the far-right organization "English Defence League", and the main reason for the riots was the rumors about the identity of the suspect who stabbed the child. The police said that they did not think the incident was related to terrorism, but the police did not disclose any detailed information about the suspect of the attack. The far-right organization took this opportunity to fabricate the name and personal background of the attacker online, spreading rumors that the suspect was from an immigrant family who came to apply for asylum and smuggled into the UK by boat last year, and that the suspect was related to Muslims.

In response to online rumors, the local Muslim community issued a statement, condemning the "heinous" incident on the one hand, and accusing "a few people of trying to portray this inhumane behavior as being related to the Muslim community on the other hand." The statement said: "Frankly speaking, this is not the case, and we must not let those who try to divide us and spread hatred take advantage of this."

On July 31, the British newspaper The Independent quoted Alex Goss, assistant chief superintendent of Merseyside Police, where Southport is located, as saying: "There has been a lot of speculation and assumptions about the identity of the 17-year-old suspect currently in police custody, and some people have used this to create violence and chaos on the streets." However, Goss still did not clarify the specific identity of the suspect, only saying that the name of the suspect circulating on the Internet was incorrect and that the suspect was born in the UK, contrary to claims online that he was a foreign immigrant who came to the UK to seek asylum.

Although the police seemed reluctant to reveal the suspect's identity, the British newspaper The Times interviewed a neighbor of the suspect on July 31. The neighbor said that the 17-year-old suspect was a "quiet child" who rarely left home. His father was a taxi driver and his mother was a housewife. "It looked like a normal family." The report revealed that the suspect's parents immigrated to the UK from Rwanda in 2002 and initially lived in the nearby city of Cardiff. They moved to Southport in 2013.

Race, religion and immigration issues behind the violence

What the British cannot stand is that in recent years, murders, violence and riots have occurred frequently in British society. In July this year alone, such incidents emerged one after another: on July 9, three women were shot to death with crossbows in London; on July 12, a suitcase containing body parts of two victims was found on a suspension bridge in Bristol; on July 18, a large-scale riot broke out in the Harley Hills community in the central city of Leeds, where Muslims and immigrants live. The cause was that several gypsy children were taken away from their families by official social service workers, which aroused the dissatisfaction of local immigrants; on July 23, a British officer was stabbed 12 times outside the Kent military camp...

The Daily Telegraph said that Britain is on the brink of a "terrible era of violence" and the current national situation is "worrying". The article said that the current rise in violence in Britain is due to insufficient police force; second, too lenient penalties, many violent criminals have not received the punishment they deserve; third, the British prison system is in crisis, and many prisoners are released from prison after not being in prison for long to continue committing crimes. The British Minister of Justice said recently that the government plans to expand the scope of early release of prisoners from September to cope with the crisis of overcrowding in prisons. The Daily Telegraph also accused the Labour Party of being consistently weak on violent crime and public security issues and lacking effective measures.

It is worth noting that the shadows of race, religion and immigration have always loomed behind these violent incidents. The large-scale riots in Leeds not long ago were related to the authorities taking minority children away from their families. Similar to the Southport incident that turned into a riot, when the Leeds riots occurred, rumors and conspiracy theories about "Muslims causing trouble" were also circulated on the Internet.

As the clouds of racial and immigration issues linger, the far-right forces in the UK are rising rapidly. The British police said that the rioters who clashed with the police in Southport were members or supporters of the British far-right group "English Defence League". Agence France-Presse said that the "English Defence League" is a far-right organization that is extremely hostile to Islam, Muslims and foreign immigrants. Paul Ray, an activist of the organization, was called a "spiritual mentor" by the Norwegian extremist Breivik, who had committed the Utoya Island massacre in which 77 people died on the grounds of "resisting the invasion of Muslims and immigrants."

Some British far-right politicians have used violence to fan the flames of immigration issues. Farage, leader of the far-right Reform Party, claimed after the Leeds riots that the street riots in Leeds showed that "the chaos of the South Asian subcontinent is happening in the UK." Another far-right politician, Anderson, also said that the UK "imported a large number of third world immigrants and culture, just wait for the chaos of the third world." Bloomberg News said that the British far-right forces posed a severe challenge to the newly elected Labour Party. The report said that the far-right forces are good at using false online information to stir up trouble. The rumors that emerged after the Southport child stabbing case led to a surge in anti-Muslim speech on the British Internet.

London's Evening Standard recently cited a survey by a research institute, which found that about one in seven ethnic minorities are making specific plans to leave the UK due to the difficult life conditions and racial discrimination caused by the economic crisis. The report said that data from the UK Statistics Office showed that racial hate crimes in England and Wales have increased by 190% in the past 10 years. An African-American company manager said he wanted to leave the UK because racial discrimination and anti-immigrant sentiment are becoming more and more serious.