Rotherham riot: Mob tries to torch centre for asylum seekers in England as Malaysia warns ‘stay away’

Angry mobs went on the rampage in a third day of shameful violence yesterday, even trying to torch a hotel housing migrant families.

Those disgraceful scenes broke out in Rotherham, leaving at least ten police injured, with trouble also flaring in Tamworth, Middlesbrough and Bolton.

They came after Saturday saw rioters wreak havoc across the country, with running battles between the far-Right and police before looting broke out and even a library in Liverpool was set on fire.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned troublemakers taking part in “far-Right thuggery’” that: “You will regret it”.

Meanwhile mosques were being offered protection from “rapid response” units after being targeted by yobs, fuelled by online lies, in the wake of last week’s knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport that left three primary school pupils dead.

In Rotherham on Sunday, hundreds of masked thugs yelling ‘Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire!’ stormed a Holiday Inn Express thought to be housing asylum seekers.

Protesters shoved blazing wheelie bins through fire escapes before blocking exits.

Brendan Cox, whose Labour MP wife Jo Cox was murdered by a far-Right fanatic in Birstall, WestYorkshire, in 2016, accused the Rotherham mob of an “attempt to murder the men, women and children inside by burning them alive”.

At one point, after smashing windows, they broke into the hotel building, hurling chairs from inside at police before being chased out again.

South Yorkshire Labour Mayor Oliver Coppard slammed the “brutal thuggery directed against some of the most vulnerable people in our society”.

The injured police officers included one who was left unconscious. But no hotel staff or residents were hurt.

South Yorkshire Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield said: “The mindless actions today have achieved nothing other than sheer destruction and leaving members of the public and the wider community in fear.”

Another Holiday Inn Express accused of housing migrants was attacked by a mob in Tamworth, Staffordshire, last night.

The crowd chanted “our streets” before smashing windows on the hotel’s bottom floor.

Violence also engulfed Middlesbrough where yobs hijacked a “peaceful” “pro-British” march and attacked cars and houses before turning on TV crews.

In Bolton, around 300 masked Muslims shouting “Allahu Akbar” – or “God is greatest” – charged towards anti-immigration marchers, with rival groups throwing missiles at each another.

This came as clean-up efforts began in cities blighted by violence on Saturday, including in Liverpool where demonstrators targeting a mosque set fire to a community library, which also hosts a foodbank.

One distraught resident said: “Nazis burned books – these have gone one step further and burned a library.”

Among other victims of the anarchy were Filipino nurses who had rocks thrown at them on their way to provide “emergency cover” at a hospital in Sunderland on Friday.

As footage of the violence spread globally, Malaysia – where almost two-thirds of the population are Muslims – became the first country to update its travel advice in Britain, telling its citizens to “stay away from protest areas” and “remain vigilant”.

Former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf labelled the Rotherham anarchy a “pogrom against Muslims and people of colour” and called for the Army to be sent in to protect them.

In chilling scenes in South Yorkshire – where tensions have festered over a long-running child sex grooming scandal involving men of mainly Pakistani origin – heavily outnumbered police had to retreat from masked gangs.

After initially being forced to pull back, officers brought in reinforcements and pushed yobs away, leaving a tense stand-off.

In Middlesbrough, demonstrators went on the rampage, smashing cars and windows, telling terrified residents that the violence was “because we’re English”.

In a reference to the Cardiff-born teenage suspect in the Southport killings, they carried a banner saying “Tom Jones is Welsh, Axel Rudakubana isn’t”.

Crowds chanted “We want our country back!” before some pelted police with bottles and pieces of slate or set wheelie bins alight.

In Dorset, police moved people off Weymouth beach as evening fell and rival marches faced off, one side shouting in support of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, while the other side bellowed “Nazis go home”.

The latest scenes came after a mob who had attempted to target a mosque in the Walton area of Liverpool on Saturday evening torched a community library that only opened last year after locals helped raise £900,000.

As firefighters tried to put out the flames that engulfed Spellow Lane library hub – which also functions as a food bank - rioters threw missiles, breaking the rear window of a fire appliance.

Faith leaders across Merseyside yesterday called on communities to “remain calm and peaceful” and ignore those seeking to “use the Southport tragedy to create division and hate”.

Elsewhere on Saturday, looters took advantage of the mayhem, stealing everything from phones, shoes and even gingerbread men and cookies from shops.

In parts of Belfast, stores and cafes were set on fire and destroyed by anti-Muslim mobs on Saturday, with shopkeepers claiming police “did nothing”.

“What kind of police are letting the people burn everything down?” one asked.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was treating reports of criminal damage as hate crimes and had so far made four arrests.

By last night, police across the UK had made more than 150 arrests in connection with the trouble since Saturday.

Last week a judge took the unusual step of allowing Axel Rudakubana, 17, to be identified as the suspect in the Southport knife attack.

False claims that he was a Muslim illegal migrant prompted police to reveal he was born in Cardiff before moving to Merseyside with his Christian parents, who are originally from Rwanda.

South Yorkshire Assistant Chief Constable Butterfield said: “Those who choose to spread misinformation and hate online also need to take responsibility for the scenes today - this was not a protest, just angry people reacting to a false narrative who have their own motivations for doing so.”

“Those who stood on and watched the violence and destruction remain absolutely complicit in this.”