Two people were stabbed and riot police were pelted with petrol bombs and bricks today in race riots involving hundreds of Asian youths, police said.
Several others were injured as officers on horseback and others in riot gear charged crowds in two separate locations in Bradford, north-central England, as hundreds of police tried to control mobs which had smashed shop windows and set cars on fire.
The disturbances were the latest wave of race-related violence in towns across northern England during the summer.
Britain's interior minister Mr David Blunkett this week banned the extreme rightwing National Front from holding a march in Bradford, which has an Asian population of about 100,000.
A group of 300 mainly Asian youths gathered in the town centre early this afternoon for a rally organised by the Anti-Nazi League after National Front members indicated that they still planned to meet in the town.
The gathering was initially peaceful. Witnesses said trouble was sparked after a group of white men came out of a city centre pub and began shouting racial insults.
This prompted a fight involving Asian youths which spilled into the neighbouring streets. Police said they had arrested 18 people.
The centre of Bradford was cleared by police after disturbances lasting three hours but violence then flared in the Manningham district of the city, where youths threw petrol bombs at officers and set cars alight.
Police on horseback charged the mob. Several people were injured by flying debris.
Some locals blamed police for aggravating tension by being heavy-handed.
Chief Superintendent Phil Read of West Yorkshire Police earlier urged troublemakers to stay away.
He said: "The police will not tolerate any group attempting to cause disorder or stir up racial hatred."
The violence follows recent race riots in the northern towns of Burnley, Leeds and Oldham. Police in Oldham accused the extreme-right British National Party (BNP) of inciting racial hatred.
AFP