Terror as pub and cars torched and shops smashed

The Bishops of Blackburn and Burnley were among those calling for an end to the troubles which saw a pub burned out, shops wrecked in stone throwing attacks and cars overturned and torched.

Police were maintaining a high profile in the town today after a weekend of violence which saw four arrests.

Police came under a hail of stones and bricks as they tried to separate Asian and white troublemakers.

A pub, shops and cars were set alight as several hundred people took to the streets.

The incidents were sparked by an alleged attack on an off duty Asian taxi driver in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Throughout the weekend gangs have been in the streets as riot police tried to maintain order.

Moulana Ahmed Sidat, the chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said today: "The leaders will get together and try to calm the situation down.

"The Lancashire Council of Mosques will try its best to stop this situation which has no place on our streets."

Burnley MP Peter Pike appealed for calm today and urged white and Asian youths to stay off the streets.

The Labour backbencher is to consult with police chiefs and the council as a matter of urgency on what can be done to prevent further disturbances.

He said he would return to the town from London at a moment's notice if it would help soothe feelings running high.

An alarmed Mr Pike, a former leader of the town's council, said: "My first message is to appeal to people to be calm, to stay at home, to stay off the streets and not have any further rioting.

"That is an appeal to the people of both communities.

"I am deeply concerned at the weekend's events and I am asking for the police to provide me a full update on the latest situation.

"I have been seeking a meeting with the new Chief Superintendent from the division, John Knowles, and I hope to meet him soon.

"I shall also be speaking to Burnley's chief executive Gillian Taylor."

The Bishop of Blackburn, the right reverend Alan Chesters said church and community leaders needed to come together to avoid further conflicts.

He said: "I was very saddened to learn of these events in Burnley.

"I hope that leaders in the community can come together to find out what is the actual cause of the problem and that the church and its leaders can play their part and seek to bring an end to the present violence.

"I hope they can work for better community relations in that area."

Marie Coulston the manager of the fire bombed Duke of York pub, Duke Bar and her family were today being comforted by friends who claim she had been told her pub was going to be attacked.

Riot police formed a human shield around the pub as firefighters tackled the flames at the height of the violence last night.

Nearby shops were vandalised and cars tipped upside down and torched.

Police also kept a high-profile on the nearby Stoneyholme estate after the Asian gang were pushed away from the Duke of York.

Earlier in the evening, a large gang of white men gathered outside Burnley Football Club's Turf Moor ground before wrecking several takeaways.

Police cordoned off several areas including near to Yorkshire Street's junction with Centenery Way as well as on the canal bridge.

An off-licence and living accommodation in Kirkgate, Burnley Wood, were gutted in a fire attack.

According to local residents, the Asian family who lived there had been warned to get out because the property was going to be fire-bombed.

Earlier in the evening the premises were ransacked and items, including a television, thrown out into the street.

Police attended that incident and at 1.48am fire crews were called out.

Station officer Bryan Rees said: "The premises were gutted with the fire going through the roof. It is likely to have been fire bombed."

Retired ambulanceman Bill Allott, 70, of Briercliffe Road said a crowd of around 200 Asians, many with hammers and other weapons were chased by police, but were able to attack the Duke of York pub.

"Suddenly the windows of the pub on Briercliffe Roadside just blew out, one after the other and flames went up the building.

"It was frightening."

Earlier Shafi's store in Oxford Road art there other end of the town had been looted and fired, presumably by white rioters, and two cars in the area set ablaze.

Windows of shops and a pub in the near town centre Yorkshire Street were smashed and the road covered in a sea of glass as police placed road checks on several entrances to the town and the Asian dominated Daneshouse area.

Wagon driver Scott Moore, of Thirlmere Avenue said it became impossible to get through town.

"I have never seen anything like it. The violence is all tit for tat, with one side reacting to the other."

The road was open again by midnight as shopowners surveyed the damage.

Inspector John Clucas said: "There had been problems in the community and at about 6pm trouble escalated near public houses.

"This moved to Stoneyholme where the community felt threatened and reacted by trying to put a visible presence of themselves on the streets - there were hundred of people there.

"The white people in that area encroached into an area of people from different cultural backgrounds and there were racial overtones in the Duke Bar area."

A police spokesman added: "The priority for the police was to keep a group of Asian men and white men apart.

"There were large gatherings of both.

"It was a case of keeping them apart and also protecting the fire officers.

"There have been no reports of injuries.

"It may be that last night's incidents may have been racially motivated but we cannot say for certain until we have assessed the facts.

"To speculate otherwise would be unhelpful."

Police were already maintaining a high presence in the area before last night's events.

On Friday night, nine cars had windows smashed following clashes between Asian and white men.

Further violence erupted on Saturday night when police cars were stoned and a large group of Asian youths attacked the Duke of York, smashing a dozen windows and injuring two customers.

Senior officers said they were also investigating three serious incidents which took place in the early hours of Saturday.

The first occurred at 2am outside a local nightclub and involved two groups of three Asians, one from Burnley and the other from Yorkshire.

A fight broke out in which two local men were stabbed, one in the arm and the other in the neck.

Both received hospital treatment at Burnley General before being discharged.

Two youths from Yorkshire were arrested and the third was being sought, said police, who added there was no racial motivation in the incident.

Three hours later police were called to a house in Francis Street, Daneshouse following a row between Asian and white men over noise from a party at a house in the street.

Damage was caused to nine cars, both Asian and white-owned, in surrounding streets.

Police say that about the same time an off-duty taxi driver was making his way home along Colne Road when his car was attacked by white men.

When he got out of the vehicle, he was attacked and received serious facial injuries including a fractured cheek bone.

He was released from hospital after treatment but is due to undergo an operation on his cheekbone in Blackburn tomorrow.

A police spokesman said they view the attack as racially-motivated and add that two white people had been arrested in connection with the early-hours incidents.

At around 11pm on Saturday night police received a number of calls from Daneshouse residents reporting gatherings of Asian youths near Abel Street.

Police spoke to the youths but then came under missile fire.

A police spokesman added that they would be speaking to all sections of the community to try and prevent a repeat of the weekend's activities.