The UK far-right protests have erupted in towns and cities across Britain after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a children’s dance class in Southport in northwest England last week.

The murders were seized on by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups as misinformation spread that the suspected attacker was an immigrant and a radical Islamist, news agency Reuters reported. Police have said the suspect was born in Britain and are not treating it as a terrorist incident.

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The fresh disturbances came after police said over 150 people had been arrested since Saturday following skirmishes at far-right rallies in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Blackpool and Hull, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.

For UK prime minister and Opposition leader Rishi Sunak expressed his shock over the “horrendous attack” and thanked the emergency services for their response.

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Top updates on UK riots 2024

1. Masked anti-immigration demonstrators smashed several windows at a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, news agency AFP reported.
2. The protests have spread through cities across the country, including in Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester on Saturday, resulting in dozens of arrests as shops and businesses were vandalised and looted and several police officers were injured, Reuters reported.
3. On Sunday, hundreds of anti-immigration protesters gathered by a hotel near Rotherham, northern England, which Britain’s interior minister said was housing asylum seekers, it added.
4. “I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those whipping up this action online, and then running away themselves,” Keir Starmer said in a TV address. There was “no justification” for what he called “far-right thuggery”, he added, promising to bring the perpetrators “to justice”.

• The prime minister has also called an emergency security meeting in a bid to quell anti-immigrant protests.
• Footage aired on the BBC showed rioters forcing their way into a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham. They also pushed a burning bin into the building. It was not clear whether asylum seekers were inside, AFP reported.
• Ten officers were injured there, but local police said none of the hotel staff or its clients had been injured.
• In the northeastern English city of Middlesbrough, hundreds of protesters squared up to riot police carrying shields. Some threw bricks, cans and pots at officers. Protesters there seized a camera from an AFP crew and broke it. The journalists were not injured.
• The violence is the worst England has seen since summer 2011, when widespread rioting followed the police killing of a mixed-race man in north London.
• Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders in Liverpool issued a joint appeal for calm.

(With inputs from agencies)