80 Police Injured in New British Race RiotAsian and white youths armed with petrol bombs and baseball bats clashed with police in the industrial city of Bradford in northern England overnight Saturday, causing over 80 police officers injured.Disturbances began in the city center, after crowds gathered to protest against a planned National Front rally, and spread to the largely Asian area of Manningham. Police said 36 people were arrested, 23 of whom were Asian, and 13 white. Two white men received knife injuries - one suffering a slash wound to his back and the other a stab wound to a leg. Bradford, with an Asian population of about 100,000, has a history of good relations between different ethnic groups. This week, Home Secretary David Blunkett granted the police special powers to ban marches and outdoor meetings in Bradford until September 27. But tension flared on Saturday amid reports that members of the National Front still planned to demonstrate. The Anti-Nazi League held a counter-demonstration in Centenary Square attended by about 500 people, mainly Asian men. Witnesses said the violence appeared to have started when a group of white men emerged from a pub and hurled racist abuse at the crowd. As dawn broke on Sunday, police said they were restoring order to the streets of Bradford, but officers said they had come close to being overwhelmed by the violence at one point. |
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