More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the anti-immigration riots that have hit the United Kingdom over the past two weeks, British police said today.
“Police forces across the country have arrested more than 1,000 people in connection with recent violent disturbances,” the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said.
A further 575 people have also been charged, while investigations into their alleged involvement in the riots are ongoing.
The most serious riots in the United Kingdom since 2011 have affected dozens of towns and villages in England and Northern Ireland following a knife attack on July 29 that killed three girls of Portuguese descent.
Rumors about the suspect, falsely portrayed as a Muslim asylum seeker and spread by far-right social media accounts, sparked violent anti-immigration street demonstrations in the days following the attack.
Several people have been arrested for posting hate speech online.
Far-right protester arrested in London
Benjamin Kremel/AFP/Getty Images
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Although the unrest subsided by the end of last week, the government vowed to punish the protesters.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised swift justice against those responsible for the riots and on Monday welcomed the “uplift” seen over the weekend.
Starmer’s office welcomed this “quick response by the judiciary” which allowed “criminals to be arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned within days”.
A 13-year-old girl who was questioned today admitted making threats outside an asylum seeker hostel in Aldershot.
A man named John Honey has pleaded guilty to attacking a car carrying three Romanians and assaulting police officers during the Hull (North East England) riots.
Honey also confessed to participating in multiple shop robberies.
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