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[Text/Observer Network Xiong Chaoran] On July 29, local time, a knife attack occurred in Southport, Merseyside, England, killing three children and injuring at least eight people. The suspect was a 17-year-old man named Axel Rudakubana. Since then, a false news has been circulated on social media that the suspect is a radical Muslim immigrant.

According to reports from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and The Guardian on August 4, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim demonstrators have been holding protests across the UK for several days, which have subsequently evolved into far-right violence, arson, looting and other riots. Reuters pointed out that this violent riot, the most extensive in the UK in 13 years, has led to the arrest of more than 150 people and is the first major test faced by the new Labour government after taking office. The British government has decided to hold an emergency response meeting on August 5.

Even near 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister, violent riots broke out recently. On the evening of July 31, thousands of protesters held a demonstration near Downing Street, chanting slogans such as "We want to take back our country" and "Ban the immigrant boats". Some people pushed down the fences set up by the police and threw Molotov cocktails and fireworks at the Prime Minister's residence and the statue of Churchill, clashing violently with the police on the scene. More than 100 protesters were arrested.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Starmer condemned the attack on August 4 at a hotel housing migrant asylum seekers in Rotherham. In a speech to the nation that day, he said that this was a violent crime, not a legitimate protest. He warned those involved in the incident that they would "regret" and vowed to "bring these thugs to justice at all costs."

"People in this country have the right to be safe, but we've seen Muslim communities being targeted, mosques being attacked," Starmer said. "Other minority communities have been singled out, Nazi salutes in the streets, attacks on police, violence and racist rhetoric with impunity, so I will not shy away from calling it what it is - far-right brutality."

"I utterly condemn the far-right thugs we saw this weekend," Starmer said in a statement. "I have no doubt that those who took part in this violence will face the full force of the law."

Reuters reported that as part of the new measures, the UK Home Office has provided greater protection for mosques and said that mosques can request "rapid security deployment" to resume worship activities as soon as possible. The British government will also hold an emergency response meeting on August 5 to provide the Starmer government with the latest situation of the violence this weekend and the response measures in the next few days. Relevant ministers and police representatives will participate.

According to previous reports, on July 29, local time, a knife attack occurred at a children's dance school in Southport, Merseyside, England, killing three children and injuring eight other children and two adults, including a dance teacher. A 17-year-old male suspect has been arrested, but the British police did not immediately release his name because the suspect was under 18.

Sky News reported that the suspect in the knife attack appeared in Liverpool District Court on the afternoon of August 1. According to the judge's ruling in court, the suspect's name was announced. His name is Axel Rudakubanana, who will turn 18 in six days (August 7). Rudakubanana was charged with three murders, 10 attempted murders and one knife possession crime. British media reported that Rudakubanana will appear in Liverpool Criminal Court on October 25, and the trial date is tentatively scheduled for January 20 next year.

It was reported that after the incident, false information that spread rapidly on social media claimed that the knife attacker in this case was a radical Islamist and an immigrant, but the British police said that the suspect was born in the UK and did not regard the case as a terrorist incident.

However, this tragedy still gave far-right anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups an opportunity to seize the opportunity and hold multiple protests. On July 30, riots broke out in the town of Southport, with hundreds of protesters gathering outside a local mosque and throwing bricks, water bottles, fireworks, stones and other objects at the main entrance of the mosque. After British police equipped with riot gear arrived at the scene, violent clashes broke out between the two sides.

Not only that, the largest riots in 13 years have also broken out in many cities in the UK in recent days, causing serious problems such as police injuries and property damage. Since then, the wave of protests has spread to all parts of the UK, including Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Sunderland, Nottingham, Leeds, Blackpool and Hull. On-site footage showed that demonstrators shouted various anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic slogans, set fires and fireworks, burned cars on the street, damaged buildings, and injured police officers.

The Guardian reported that on August 4, a group of masked thugs led by the far right attempted to set fire to a hotel in Rotherham that accommodates asylum seekers, which triggered anti-immigration protests across the country to further evolve into violence.

On the same day, about 700 people gathered outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham and then clashed with the police. Some rioters threw wooden blocks, bottles and chairs at the police, smashed the hotel windows, and sprayed the police with fire extinguisher devices. South Yorkshire Police said at least 10 police officers were injured, one of whom suffered a head injury and lost consciousness.

The scene showed that some trash cans were burning on fire, and protesters shouted slogans such as "drive them out". Some other protesters, wearing flags, rushed into the hotel. There were reports that a fire also broke out inside the hotel.

Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield of South Yorkshire Police said the behaviour she saw was "simply disgusting". "While only a small number of people on the scene chose violence and destruction, those who simply stood by and watched were absolutely complicit. Those who chose to spread misinformation and hatred online also need to be held accountable for what happened today. This was not a protest, it was just angry people reacting to misinformation and they had their own motives for doing so."

"The criminal violence at a hotel accommodating asylum seekers in Rotherham is appalling." British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the thugs and said those "who engage in street crime and violence" must pay the price and face the "harshest punishment."

On August 4, in addition to Rotherham, there were also protests in Bolton, Lancaster, Weymouth and Middlesbrough. Hundreds of protesters marched in the city center, chanting: "We want to take back our country." In Middlesbrough, thugs threw bricks, bottles and cans at the police and burned trash cans, causing smoke to rise everywhere in the streets.

Reuters pointed out that this incident was the first major test for Labour leader Starmer, who had been prime minister for just one month. The last time Britain saw such serious violent riots was in 2011, when the scale of the outbreak was even larger. Thousands of people took to the streets for five consecutive nights to protest after the London police shot a black man.

According to RT, Richard Dearlove, the former head of the British intelligence service MI6, claimed without evidence that Russia tried to incite protests by spreading the lie that the perpetrators of the Southport attack were immigrants. He added that the false information was spread by a website called "Channel3 Now", which is allegedly linked to Russia.

In response, the Russian Embassy in the UK refuted the allegations, calling them "predictable poison gas", adding that Dearlov was "one of those who helped destabilize an entire country and region, triggering an unprecedented refugee crisis".

It is worth mentioning that on the social media platform X, a netizen shared a video showing that the current large-scale violent riots are caused by the large-scale arrival of immigrants in the UK and the open border policy. Musk, the owner of the X platform and an American billionaire, responded to the post: "(British) civil war is inevitable."

RT points out that like the EU, the UK has also been struggling to cope with the influx of immigrants for many years. According to official data, the country had a net immigration of 685,000 people in the 12 months to June 2023.

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