Mob goes on rampage in immigrant area

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 9

Mob goes on rampage in immigrant area

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NZPA-Reuter London 1 he police have arrested 20 white youths niter a mob of 150 of them rampaged through a predominantly Asian immigrant area of the drab East End of London.

Fighting broke out between Bengali residents and the attackers and a Bengali grocer was taken to hospital with facial injuries. The youths ran through the streets hurling milk bottles and stones, smashing shop windows and damaging a car. ' The attack, mounted from; three sides, lasted about 15 minutes, and centred on Brick Lane. Tower Hamlets — an area in which the Greater London Council is' thinking of setting aside certain blocks of flats for Bengalis. The attackers then fled down a side street when police arrived. A local newsagent described the attack on Sunday as the worst he had seen.

“There were about 150 of them — like an army. They, were shouting 'Kill the black bastards’,” he said. “They really went berserk. Every Sunday they come down here looking for trouble. The coloured people can look after themselves; when there’s 10 or 20 of them, but this -time it was 150. “The coloured people; came out of their flats and; (faced the attackers. Then the! police came along “I was born here 69 years' ago, but it has never been as bad as this, never.” A police spokesman des-; cribed the incident as “a serious disturbance” and said extra policemen had been drafted into the area.