Violent rioting continues in England and Northern Ireland | BBC News

start this hour here in the UK where there's been renewed rioting in some cities in England and Northern Ireland the worst outbreaks of violence came in Belfast Plymouth and Birmingham nearly 400 people have been arrested after a week of violent disorder which began last week in Southport after the Fatal stabbings of three girls and escalated following misinformation about the identity of the perpetrator spread on social media last night in Plymouth at least three police officers were injured in what the police described as sustained violence bricks and fireworks were thrown at them six arrests were made in Belfast Riot officers had stones and petrol bombs thrown at them close to a supermarket which was set a light at the weekend as the latest disorder unfolded the Prime Minister criticized the owner of X Elon Musk who posted that Civil War is inevitable in the UK our reporter Aruna aena has the latest refugees are welcome here two opposing protests in Plymouth started out peacefully before vocal clashes between the anti-racism and anti-immigration groups police in riot gear were deployed to keep the groups apart and several officers suffered injuries as violence later broke out it was kind of terrifying hundreds of people moved up the ho Park onto the uh kind of the prominade and the memorial area 10 minutes after that there was strong police presence kind of dissipating them after they'd set fires and things and then there was a huge group of writers outside our front door kind of Smashing things organizing themselves for further mischief and then 10 minutes after that it was it completely moved back down towards the Town Center area dispers immediately there was also unrest in south bell fast last night Riot teams were deployed to Sandy row as a petrol bomb and Stones were thrown at police officers in Birmingham cars were smashed and a pub was damaged after protesters gathered following false rumors of a planned far-right demonstration and a hate crime investigation is underway in Burnley after gravestones in the Muslim section of a cemetery were covered in white paint I still think that there is a way to bring this to an end by people coming together as a community in the way that we've seen in the cleanup operations now clearly that strength of community spirit is the there and that's what we call upon to bring this violence to an end meanwhile in Southport the community is dealing with the horrors of last week and the disorder that's followed the family of lean Lucas who was stabbed while leading the children's dance class have shared their disbelief at what's going on around the country just go home just just let us let us recoverers at the best we can I know we're not never going to to recover but at least give us chance to police say they're working around the clock to identify more people involved in the violent disorder with more arrests expected in the coming days Aruna ainger BBC News well let's go live to our political correspondent Harry Farley who is at Westminster so Harry more violence last night and the Prime Minister has spoken about holding those responsible both on the streets and online but I suppose the question is how can the government do that that's right uh Nikki morning to you ministers uh that we've been hearing from are very concerned as you say about criminal activity online such as inciting violence but also separately about the spread of misinformation online and urging social media companies to do more and in that context uh we heard briefly as you mentioned there the the sort of war of words that's really emerged between the Prime Minister and the CEO of X Elon Musk one of the richest men in the world and Elon Musk highlighted a post by the far-right activist Steven yaxley lenon also known as Tommy Robinson to his 193 million followers and then separately in response to another post about the riots Elon Musk posted Civil War is inevitable in the UK and the Prime Minister spokesperson we heard from yesterday criticizing that comment saying there is no justification for comments like that but then Elon Musk follows it up directly criticizing sizing the Prime Minister who said last night that he would not tolerate attacks on Muslim communities and in response to that Elon Musk posted shouldn't you be concerned about attacks on all communities uh and uh so there's that context I suppose going around that spat between the Prime Minister and Elon Musk we heard from the Justice Minister Heidi Alexander this morning rejecting accusations among some uh from uh the protesters among some writers about two-tier policing essentially that the police manage protests in different ways depending on which Community is protesting she rejected those allegations when she spoke to us this morning fundamentally the police will take operational decisions about how to police protests effectively what I do take issue with though is the idea that what we're seeing on our streets at the moment is a protest it is not it is outright sheer criminality and violence and that is why the individuals who are responsible for it need to face the foref of the law um and face consequences for the actions that they are choosing to take secretary Peter Carl met with representative representatives from X but also Tik Tok meta and Google yesterday and following that meeting he said that he expects platforms to ensure that those seeking to spread hate online are not being facilitated and have no place to hide and and uh the government I suppose looking as you say to to arrest and sentence those who are participating in violence on the streets but also urging social media companies to do more uh to stop the spread of misinformation on their platforms and on that point that they want to arrest and put them through the courts is there enough Court time and we know that prison spaces have been at a low amount available so are more prison spaces going to be created har well let's take let's take that second Point first of all on prisons as you say there's been real concern over the last few weeks about the availability of prison space and the capacity within the prison system with warnings about the estate the prison estate being full uh the government saying this morning that they are releasing they are creating an extra more than 500 prison places in the coming weeks now that was part of a plan already it's going to come partly from repurposing uh repurposing cells in cook and wood in Kent but also a new uh in Rutland so those plans were already in place but they're being sort of accelerated I suppose to cope with the arrests uh that have been made Kama says he wants those who have been arrested to stay to be remanded in custody while they wait uh for trial uh and so far around 400 people have been arrested with the National Police Chief's Council saying that they are expecting more to be arrested in the coming days as police weighed through all that footage uh that we've seen to identify those people perpetrating uh perpetrating the violence and on your point about courts Nikki well there's an additional protocol that's been uh set up so that the courts can sit magistrates courts in particular can sit for longer if they need to that is actually actually uh up to the Judiciary up to the judges to set those hours but that power is there if they need to sit for longer to process uh the the extra hearings that they're expecting Harry fley with the latest at Westminster thank you very much