- Hooligans set fire to a police station and looted shops in Sunderland on Friday
- A taxi was also set on fire before a large crowd surrounded a mosque in the city
- Championship football club Sunderland has condemned the ‘disgraceful scenes’
Championship football club Sunderland have released a statement condemning the “disgraceful scenes” that took place in the Wearside city on Friday night.
Angry hooligans, many of them masked, set fire to a police station and looted shops.
A taxi was also set on fire, after which a large crowd surrounded the Millfield Mosque, with police forming a human shield.
“The shameful scenes tonight are not representative of our culture, our history or our people,” the football club said in a statement.
‘Our great city was built on togetherness and acceptance, and Sunderland will always be here for everyone. We are stronger as one community. Now. Then. Always.’
Sunderland Central police station was set on fire as rioting broke out in the city on Friday
A vehicle was set on fire by a group of hooligans in Sunderland city centre during violent rioting
Sunderland AFC have released a statement from the club condemning the ‘disgraceful scenes’ on Friday night
Among the hundreds of people who took to the streets in Sunderland was a shirtless man with a Nazi tattoo on his back.
A topless man was filmed launching into a racist tirade, saying: ‘If this time in your own f***ing country you’re ashamed to be f***ing white and an Englishman… fuck off.’
Sunderland became the latest city to experience violent disorder as hooligans claimed they were acting in response to the tragic stabbings in Southport this week, which left three children dead on Monday.
The 17-year-old accused of murdering three girls in Southport appeared in Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday. The suspect has been named as Axel Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire.
A man in Sunderland was seen wearing red braces with a swastika tattooed on his back
Before police identified Rudakubana as the alleged killer, a series of hoaxes spread on social media claiming that the knife attacks had been carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK in a small boat.
This misinformation has apparently caused a wave of Islamophobic anger and several mosques have been attacked and threatened in recent days.