UK far-right protesters target Birmingham asylum hotel with projectiles

A hotel known to have sheltered asylum seekers was targeted near the central English city of Birmingham on Sunday, police said, as violent anti-immigration rallies led by far-right protesters shake parts of Britain.

"A large group of individuals" have been "throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires and targeting police" at the hotel in the town of Tamworth, with one officer injured, Staffordshire Police said in a statement.

Riots first flared in Southport late Tuesday following Monday's frenzied knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in the northwest coastal city, before spreading up and down England.

They were fuelled by false rumours on social media about the background of British-born 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of killing a six, seven, and nine-year-old, and injuring another 10 people.

Police have blamed the violence on supporters and associated organisations of the English Defence League, an anti-Islam organisation founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.

Agitators have targeted at least two mosques, and the UK interior ministry announced Sunday it was offering new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.

Religious leaders call for peace

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.

Ten officers were injured there, but local police said none of the hotel staff or its clients had been hurt.

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 fresh disturbances came after police said more than 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.

Rioters threw bricks, bottles and flares at police — injuring several officers — and looted and burnt shops, while demonstrators shouted anti-Islamic slurs as they clashed with counter-protesters.

The violence is the worst England has seen since the 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.

"We're now seeing it (trouble) flooding across major cities and towns," said Tiffany Lynch of the Police Federation of England and Wales.