Police in Leeds have begged locals to stay at home as they battle to disperse rioters from the area after a disturbance escalated into a full-blown riot.
Chaos has erupted on a residential street in the northern city after police were called to a disturbance involving ‘agency workers and children‘ – with a police car overturned, a double decker bus sent up in flames and bonfires set in the streets.
Shocking video footage circulating online shows large crowds of people gathered in the Harehills area of the northern city, where thugs overturned and smashed up a police car with scooters, prams and bikes.
Locals were also seen running towards a fire started in the middle of the road with a large fridge, which they hurled onto the fire as locals cheered. Images later showed the double decker bus reduced to a charred and twisted wreck.
Senior officers and local councillors have urged people to go home as dozens of police, including cops in riot gear, flooded the streets around Harehills and roads were closed off.
But locals have continued to turn out in the area, with many livestreaming footage of the stand-off on social media.
Harehills resembles a warzone, with one police vehicle overturned and a bonfire started at a road junction.
First Bus, which operates Leeds’ bus services, told MailOnline that two of their vehicles, including the one that was set on fire, were involved in the riots Thursday evening and that no one had been injured.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
West Yorkshire Police say they were called to a disturbance involving ‘agency workers and children’ at a property in Luxor Street at 5pm.
They then made a decision to ‘remove the agency workers and the children’ from the area – as locals turned violent and more officers were sent to the scene.
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The force has also called in some reinforcements from South Yorkshire Police.
NUMBER OF INJURIES
A team from FirstBus’s depot was quickly deployed to the scene on Thursday to ‘provide support to our drivers and customers’, a spokesperson for the transport group said.
‘We can confirm that both drivers are unhurt and we have no reports of injuries to passengers.’
