Police battered with beer barrels as disorder breaks out in Sunderland following Southport riots

Hundreds of people have gathered in Sunderland city centre for a planned protest following the Southport mass stabbing in which three young children were killed.

The protest also comes after riots in the Southport area in the wake of the stabbing, which targeted mosques in the town. Today (August 2), a gathering has been taking place at Keel Square in Sunderland.

Members of the crowd chanted in support of Tommy Robinson. Others shouted insults about Islam. Mounted police followed the march, along with officers in vans who battled their way through traffic to keep up.

There was a loud cheer as a march set off shortly before 7pm. A large police presence was watching the marchers, some of whom were draped in England flags. There was then a standoff between police and protesters outside a mosque on Sunderland’s St Mark’s Road. Officers in riot gear came under attack with stones and beer cans thrown.

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Some protesters argued about “two-tier policing” as the police threw a protective ring around the mosque. Mounted police pushed back demonstrators, some of whom were in masks.

Meanwhile, customers in the next door Aldi filmed the scenes on their phones through the shop window.

Disorder then followed back at Sunderland’s newly refurbished Keel Square where the demonstration began. Police had beer barrels thrown at them as they tried to contain the several hundred protesters, according to the PA news agency.

As a helicopter flew overhead, young men threw stones at the police and chanted “whose streets, our streets”.

Zara Mohammed, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), has said hundreds of mosques