For Black Britons, UK riots leave lasting scars

The violence was ostensibly aimed against Muslims, immigrants and the police after misinformation about a deadly knife attack on young girls spread online. But it morphed into a much wider threat that has left the Black community shaken.

The targets were mainly immigration lawyers’ offices and immigration centres, but the violence was broader.

White rioters attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, mosques and police officers as well as smashing and looting shops on the pretext of false online information that the suspected killer of three young girls was an Islamist migrant.

Videos also circulated of white men attacking people of colour across the country –including one wielding a hedge trimmer running towards a Muslim couple in a petrol station and a group badly beating a Black man in Manchester.