Following a protest in Aldershot when items were thrown outside a hotel sheltering refugees, police are looking for eight persons.
Only a small portion of the 200 demonstrators who gathered outside the Potters International Hotel on Wednesday night, according to Hampshire Police, got engaged in the disturbance.
Eight people whose identities the force would like to know had their photographs publicised.
The demonstration comes in the wake of several isolated incidents of disturbance around the nation following the Monday killings of three girls in the Merseyside town of Southport.
At a dancing lesson with a Taylor Swift theme, six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar were fatally stabbed.
Following the serious injuries of eight other children and two adults, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, had an earlier court appearance where he was charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder.
In Aldershot, a police and crime commissioner (PCC) said that a demonstration turned into a “mob-type” protest. One policeman sustained a minor wound.
“Investigations are under way today to take action against those who sparked disruption in Aldershot last night,” a Hampshire Police spokesman said, pleading for witnesses.
According to him “the majority of attendees gathered in a peaceful manner” but a few “got involved in criminal activity, throwing objects and subjecting people to racial abuse” .
The disturbance in Aldershot has not been directly connected by the police to the attack in Southport.
Local residents have “exacerbated” the issue, according to Aldershot Labour MP Alex Baker.
“There is no justification for disorderly behaviour and these scenes do not represent Aldershot and Farnborough,” he wrote in a post on X.
“We all support our shared right to peacefully protest, but we will not stand for people coming to our towns determined to stir up trouble and divide our community.”
In a related development, after a turbulent night in Teesside, an 11-year-old kid was taken into custody on suspicion of arson after setting a police car on fire.
It comes after 11 other people were taken into custody when police officers in Hartlepool’s Murray Street neighbourhood were attacked on Wednesday with missiles, glass bottles, and eggs.
Seven men, one child, and one woman, ages 14 to 54, were among those jailed on charges of violent disorder and assaulting an emergency personnel, according to Cleveland Police.
On Wednesday, during a demonstration on Whitehall, police and protestors clashed, leading to the arrest of over a hundred individuals in central London.
Tuesday saw disturbances in Southport as well, just hours after thousands of people attended a calm vigil to honour the girls who passed away.
At a Downing Street meeting with police leaders earlier, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declared that “action will be taken” in response to the “violent disorder”.
In a later, nationally televised speech, he outlined plans for forces throughout the nation to step up their cooperation in order to address these kinds of occurrences.
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