White gang stages revenge attacks on Asian business

A GANG of white youths launched tit-for-tat attacks on Asian businesses in riot-torn Bradford as the Government warned it was considering arming police with water cannon following a weekend of violence in the northern city.

The 30-strong group wearing balaclavas, attacked a petrol station and a restaurant with baseball bats and an axe in a brief flare-up of trouble seen as revenge for earlier rioting by predominantly Asian youths which left two car showrooms and a working man's club burnt out.

A pub was also firebombed early today but the blaze was put out by local Asian resi-

dents. No one was injured in the three incidents. Tayub Amjad, 20, owner of the Kebbeesh restaurant in the Greengates area, said: "The attack went on for about 10 minutes - it was terrifying." He added that he believed the attackers were local youths and not National Front supporters.

A West Yorkshire police spokesman the incidents were not as bad as those on Saturday night and the situation was presently quiet.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said he would consider requests for extra police powers, including the use of water cannon, following the trouble over the weekend.

Mobs of young men of both races took part in an 11-hour orgy of fighting, arson and looting which saw two people stabbed, 120 police officers and two police horses injured and 36 arrests.

The violence may have been prolonged because of the "cautious" approach of the police, he said. "I think that the police in having to defend themselves are sometimes at a disadvantage.

"The way in which they are cautious - we don't, for instance, use water cannon - does actually place them in a situation of prolonged violence and antisocial behaviour, rather than in what some parts of the world are shorter and sharper conflicts."

On Saturday, Bradford police had to call in reinforcements from other forces when gangs of Asian and white youths fought battles with officers who were pelted with bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and fireworks and attacked with baseball bats and hammers.

The trouble started when white extremists who had been drinking nearby began shouting abuse at Asian youths leaving an Anti-Nazi rally organised in response to a planned National Front march which was banned. Rightwing activists have been blamed for stirring up anti- Asian sentiments in several northern towns this summer and senior officers acknowledged they had underestimated the response of Asian youths.

Police arrested some of the men shouting abuse but it was too late to stop mobs of Asian youths rampaging.

The youths continued to fight running battles with riot police in the Westgate area. The worst violence occurred in the Manningham district where cars were set alight to form barricades.

Thirty people were trapped inside the Manningham Ward Labour Club when the building was set on fire and blazing vehicles positioned to blockade the fire doors before. They were rescued by firefighters protected by police.

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