BRUTAL THUGGERY

Yobs storm migrant hotel | Cops, shops, locals attacked

- HOLLIE BONE and LUCY THORNTON

CITIES and towns were turned into burning cauldrons of hate over the weekend as cowardly far-right gangs went on violent rampages across Britain.

Police were attacked, shops smashed up and looted and in the most terrifying assault a hotel housing migrants was stormed by thugs who tried to set it ablaze.

One frightened resident at the hotel in Rotherham, South Yorks, told how many living there had fled war zones but never felt so unsafe, adding: "We did think we could die."

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard said: "What we're seeing is not protest, it is brutal thuggery directed against some of the most vulnerable people in our society."

Horrific footage also emerged of a Black man being kicked and punched by a masked racist gang in Manchester while another video showed a violent crowd dragging a man from his car in Hull while yobs shouted "kill him".

But thousands of defiant locals turned out to protect mosques, temporary asylum accommodation and other buildings from the marauding gangs. Police arrested 147 people over the violence.