Australians travelling to the United Kingdom have been reminded to “exercise a high degree of caution” amid rioting that has rocked the country.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade updated advice on its Smartraveller website on Monday. Its general advisory remains the same due to the threat of terrorism, but its latest update appeared to highlight concern over .
“Avoid areas where protests are occurring due to the potential for disruption and violence,” the update says. “Monitor the media for information and updates. Follow the instructions of local authorities.”
How did the UK riots start?
Violence erupted last Tuesday and spread across several UK towns and cities in the wake of at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport — a seaside town about an hour north-west of Manchester — on 29 July.
Three young girls were killed and 10 others, including eight children, were injured.
The alleged attacker — 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who will turn 18 this week — has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. He faced court and was remanded in youth detention.
People at a vigil outside the town hall in Southport, where three children were killed in a recent knife attack, on Monday. Source: AAP, Press Association / Ryan Jenkinson
Anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups seized on the attack, with disinformation spread online contributing to disorder in towns and cities.
Social media posts said the alleged attacker was a radical Islamist who had just arrived in the United Kingdom and was known to intelligence services.
Police say Rudakubana was born in the UK. They are not treating the attack as a terrorist incident, and have blamed online disinformation, amplified by high-profile figures, for driving the violence.
What is the latest on the riots?
Protests, mostly involving a few hundred people, continued across the country, with bricks thrown at police officers, shops looted, and mosques and Asian-owned businesses attacked.
In Rotherham, northern England, protesters on Sunday tried to break into a hotel that housed asylum seekers in what UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called an act of “far-right thuggery”. At least 10 police officers were injured but no hotel staff or clients were hurt.
Rioters attack police and break into the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, which housed asylum seekers. Credit: Danny Lawson/AP
Another hotel housing asylum seekers was targeted in Tamworth, near Birmingham in the UK’s Midlands region.
Elsewhere largely young men, some draped in the UK flag, hurled rocks and shouted
Many rioters were met by large groups of counter-protesters, with police often struggling to keep the two sides apart.
How has the government responded?
Starmer held an emergency meeting with senior government minister, police and prison chiefs on Monday (local time).
He said those who targeted Muslim communities would swiftly face the “full force of the law”.
“Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest; it is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” Starmer said following the meeting.
“The full force of law will be visited on all those who are identified as having taken part.”
Interior minister Yvette Cooper said rioters had felt “emboldened by this moment to stir up racial hatred”.
She promised those involved would face a reckoning, saying the government would back punishments ranging from jail sentences to travel bans.
Police have arrested 378 people since the start of the disorder, the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council said.
Starmer said a “standing army” of specialist police officers would tackle outbreaks of violence where needed.
With reporting from the Reuters news agency via the Australian Associated Press.
