Harrowing second boy is hauled from his house by officers

This is the harrowing moment which is said to have sparked a night of violent riots in Leeds – as police today revealed ‘several people’ had been arrested.

The city was a scene of ‘shocking and disgraceful’ disorder on Thursday evening, which involved a police car being trashed and a double decker bus set on fire.

Distressing footage which emerged today shows police officers hauling a young boy out of a house and bundling him into a van.

Witnesses say the removal of the child was the flashpoint which kicked off the rioting last night, with the disorder lasting for hours. 

It is claimed three children were removed from their parents ‘by force’ and taken into care. 

West Yorkshire Police today said that a number of people had been arrested following the violence and warned ‘further arrests will be made over the next few days’.

It comes as Assistant Chief Constable Pat Twiggs outlined how officers were ‘attacked’ with a ‘barrage of bricks and missiles’ while responding to a call from Leeds City Council’s children’s social care.

Rioting broke out after police were reportedly called to a ‘disturbance’ between ‘agency workers and some children’, amid claims workers were trying to take the youngsters into care.  

And as outrage over the incident spiralled out of control, desperate community members were forced to plead with the rabble as police, despite having first responded to the disturbance around 5pm last night, remained relatively absent from the mayhem until 1am today. 

Describing how the mayhem exploding, ACC Twiggs said: ‘Our officers responded to a call from Children’s Social Care at around 5pm yesterday after social workers reported being met with hostility when dealing with a child protection matter.

‘Responding officers were attacked and helped Children’s Social Care staff withdraw to a place of safety.

‘As the disorder escalated, damage was caused to vehicles and several fires set.

‘We continually assessed the situation and took the decision to deploy specialist public order officers who then came under a barrage of bricks and missiles from a large group.

‘A decision was taken to withdraw these officers temporarily as it was evident that the police were their sole target.’

ACC Twiggs said officers retreated to allow ‘community mediation’ to take place to try and ‘calm the situation’.

He added police later returned with firefighters to extinguish blazing vehicles and bonfires before police eventually restored order in the early hours. 

‘Throughout the night several arrests were made in relation to the disorder and further arrests will be made over the next few days,’ added the Assistant Chief Constable. 

It comes as officers were today spotted at the aftermath of the chaos, with cars still smouldering in the streets and a police cordon still in place. 

The pandemonium erupted in Harehills, east Leeds early yesterday evening following an outbreak of ‘serious disorder’ that saw bonfires lit across the city, a police car overturned and a double decker bus torched, reducing it to a charred and twisted wreck. 

Terrified residents were forced to take to the streets to defend their homes when a furious mob drove riot police out after setting the city ablaze. 

Green Party councillor Mothin Ali, who after being elected to Leeds Council in May declared his victory a ‘win for the people of Gaza’, begged the rioters to stop, saying ‘there’s children in there’, as fires raged in the streets.

Speaking today about the chaos, the Cllr told journalists that about 1,500 people had crammed into the area as outrage over the young children being removed from their home boiled over. 

‘The scene was absolute mayhem,’ he told reporters. ‘At the peak of it there were about 1,500 to 2,000 people on the scene. it was chaotic and absolutely crazy out here.’

He added that he and a group of other ‘community activists’ were trying to act as ‘human shields’ for the police, who he claimed had initially turned up ‘without riot gear, helmets and shields’ and were being ‘pelted at with bricks and bottles’. 

Police and local officials urged residents to stay home as rioters flooded the streets around Harehills and roads were closed off. But hooligans continued to pour into the area, with many gleefully livestreaming footage of the havoc on social media. 

West Yorkshire Police has since been accused of intentionally avoiding the riot, vowed that the ‘full weight of the law will be brought against those responsible’.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said police have her full backing in ‘taking the strongest possible action’ against rioters in Harehills, Leeds.

She said in a statement: ‘The scenes of criminality and disorder in Leeds last night were disgraceful, including attacks on police vehicles and public transport, and will have been very distressing for local residents.

‘Those responsible must face the full force of the law and West Yorkshire Police have my support in pursuing the perpetrators and taking the strongest possible action against them.

‘Local partners are meeting this morning and the police, the mayor and local councillors will be working closely with the community to provide support and reassurance and prevent further disturbances.

‘Where there are incidents of disorder or unrest in communities, there is a responsibility on everyone to support the local agencies and residents who are working to resolve problems and prevent escalation. They have my support in their local work to provide a calm and firm response.’

Dame Priti Patel, the former Conservative home secretary, said the night’s mayhem was ‘shocking and concerning’, adding: ‘The rule of the mob should never prevail over the rule of law.

‘The police must investigate and those responsible for criminality and violence need to face justice. We have a responsibility to let due processes take place.’

Meanwhile, Britain’s top police and crime commissioner has blasted those involved, claiming the chaos had caused £1million of damage. 

Donna Jones, chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, told MailOnline the riot was a clear sign of a ‘total lack of respect’ for the authorities.

Speaking to MailOnline, the Tory Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner said: ‘The riots in the Leeds Hareshill area are a stark sign of community breakdown across the country and a sign of rebelling against that state. The people involved should hang their heads in shame.

‘People’s lives have been put at risk and over £1million of criminal damage and arson has been caused to public property including the double decker bus.

‘Taking to the streets in this kind of direct action, rioting, setting fire to things and smashing up police cars, it’s a clear sign of lack of community cohesion its worst level.

‘There is never any just cause to take such violent and extreme actions, and those involved should feel the full force of the law.’

Demanding ‘tough action’ by police against the thugs involved, Mrs Jones added: ‘This is a wake up call for the new government of the issues they are inheriting in Britain in 2024.’

And a Tory MP this morning warned the flashpoint was sparked by a ‘complete lack of respect’ for law enforcement.

‘Unfortunately this seems to be a narrative that has been developing over a number of years where there has been complete disregard, complete disrespect to the law enforcers,’ Robbie Moore, the MP for the nearby constituency of Keighley and Ilkley, told GB News today.

Officers were called to an incident at an address in Luxor Street at 5pm on Thursday where they found an ‘ongoing disturbance’ involving agency workers and children, West Yorkshire Police said.

A large crowd began to gather at the location, prompting the agency workers and children to be taken to a safe place and more officers were requested to attend the area where ‘pockets of disorder’ were emerging.

Crowds continued to form in Luxar Street as police officers desperately attempted to disperse people who had gathered to watch the earlier incident.

Livestream footage on social media showed angry rioters setting fire to vehicles, including a public bus. 

Leeds City Council said the disorder was not reflective of the street, with the authority adding it is now working with police and community leaders following Thursday’s violence. 

‘While this is an ongoing police matter, it would not be appropriate to comment further on any alleged circumstances surrounding this incident, however we would ask people to avoid engaging with speculation on social media to enable people to engage with local services where they need to,’ a council spokeswoman said. 

‘Incidents like this do not reflect Leeds or the Harehills community as a whole. Our communities, including the one in Harehills, play a vital role in ensuring collectively we keep our neighbourhoods safe and feeling safe.

‘We are immensely grateful to those key individual networks of individuals, community leaders and elected officials within Harehills who rallied together last night to help to do this and prevent the situation from worsening alongside the police.’

Compared to the rest of the UK, Harehills has high levels of unemployment.

It was the same area that was infamously hit by the 2001 Harehills Riot, which broke out after the wrongful arrest of an Asian man.

During the 2001 riots, 26 cars were burnt out, with two police officers and two journalists severely injured, and a shop was set on fire.

More than 20 men were sent to prison for their involvement in the violence which flared that day.

Other footage showed how the thugs overturned and smashed up a police car with scooters, prams and bikes.  

The vehicle was left in the road with its blue lights flashing, sirens blaring, and car alarms going off as crowds of people shouted in the streets.

Locals were also seen running towards a fire started in the middle of the road with a large fridge, which they hurled onto the blaze whilst onlookers cheered. 

Describing the rioting, one eyewitness said: ‘It was surreal. Rocks getting launched, bottles thrown, kids in balaclavas everywhere charging with bins.

‘Furniture was thrown on to the bus that’s been set ablaze to keep it burning. It’s just carnage.’

Another eyewitness, who saw a bus go up in flames, said he had ‘never seen anything like it’.

He added: ‘I can feel the heat off the bus that is on fire from 40 yards away.’

Cllr Ali, 42, was among the Harehills residents who took to the streets to plead with the lawless rioters and warn community members to protect their house – as police were nowhere to be seen.

‘There’s children in there,’ he yelled at the crowd, adding: ‘This is our neighbourhood!’

Speaking on Friday, Cllr Ali said police ‘didn’t have the numbers and didn’t have the support’ during the disorder in Harehills on Thursday night. 

‘It was a dangerous situation,’ he added.  ‘The good thing is people were angry but they weren’t turning on each other. They weren’t attacking other people.’

Refusing to be drawn on what triggered the mayhem, he added: ‘Legitimate anger is appropriate but attacking a bus with innocent people on it is not.’

One resident, standing next to the councillor while flames burned around them, shouted: ‘There’s families in there. Think before you act. Those cameras are recording each and every one of us!’

Paul, who has lived in the area for more than 20 years, said he left his house at around 7pm on Thursday to see people throwing bricks and stones at a police van.

Paul, who asked to be referred to by his first name only, said: ‘The police were trying to stand their ground but they had to get back in the van.’

He added: ‘The most shocking thing was when the bus went up – got set on fire. There was a bang and everybody ran. I don’t like my kids being around this. It’s just not right.

‘It was just that one incident and then I think everybody jumped on the bandwagon. I don’t think it was one particular people, I think everybody thought it was an excuse to have a go at the police.’

Paul said he was worried there would be another night of disorder on Friday: ‘I think it’ll start again because of the tension. That tension is still there. I think social media escalated it because everyone was filming on TikTok live.’

Riesa, a pharmacy dispenser who did not want to give her surname, witnessed ‘quite violent’ scenes last night, including people throwing items at police officers and cars. 

The 26-year-old, who lives off Harehills Lane, said: ‘They were attacking police cars, throwing things at the police cars – anything they could pick up off the floor really. Rocks from the garden, rubbish, drinks, anything.

‘Drinks were definitely being throwing at the police – water or juice or fizzy drinks, or anything they had in their hands basically, at the cars because [the police] were trying not to get too close because it was quite violent.’

She said about an hour later, when she was back home, she heard ‘chanting and screaming’ from outside, adding that it sounded like ‘a thousand people’.

‘Looking out the window, you can see that people were attacking cars that were just at the traffic light trying to go past them, but they wouldn’t turn around because I think they were getting quite scared because there were so many people,’ she continued.

‘A few minutes after that, looking out my house, I could just see big black smoke coming from the main road.

‘My husband said that they were pulling bins from people’s businesses or houses and just putting them into the middle of the road full of rubbish and just setting it on fire.’

She continued: ‘There was a bus at the lights, obviously stopped by all these people as well. He was trying to get past, obviously he couldn’t, so he just reversed and just stopped basically outside my street, and just left the bus there because he felt he was in danger.

‘I did see people throwing things at the bus before the driver had got out. Someone threw some glass at the bus.’

Addressing the disorder, Leeds City Council boos, Tom Riordan told BBC Radio 4: ‘It had quietened. It’s calm. We have already started the clean up on the ground.

‘There was a family incident earlier in the day that police attended and our officials attended that the local community got concerned about and that appeared to be the trigger of concern for the groups of people.

‘I can’t go into any detail. It was a family incident and as always in Leeds we have outstanding rated services…we always intervene where we need to when children are at risk. It was an incident that was probably misinterpreted I would say.’

He added: ‘Obviously [the disorder] was shocking for everybody and it is something that we don’t want to see in our city. It was a small minority, but a significant minority of people who were doing that. It’s shocking and they need the full force of the law.’

Harehills resembled a warzone overnight with plumes of smoke from burnt objects filling the air.

A few hundred thugs still understood to be dispersed across the city early this morning. A large number of public order officers and  helicopters have been deployed to the area.

West Yorkshire Police called in reinforcements from the force in South Yorkshire, a spokesperson told MailOnline.

In a statement, the force said: ‘More officers have been deployed to the area to assist with the management of this incident.

‘Some road closures are also being implemented and people are advised to avoid the area at this time.’

But despite calling for back-up, Sky News’ northern correspondent Shingi Mararike reported police had taken an approach in which they’re ‘not going directly into the mass of people’ and instead trying to avoid ‘adding to the flames’. 

The force said it wanted to ‘reassure residents’ that it was ‘responding to the disorder incidents which have taken place’ and that ‘appropriate specialist public order resources are attending’.

‘Officers are also reviewing footage which has circulated on social media showing offending,’ a force spokesperson said in a statement.

Police reiterated that all criminal offences, including damage to vehicles from fire, would be investigated and vowed to take action against the rioters.

‘We want to make it very clear that the full weight of the law will be brought against those responsible,’ the force added.

Earlier police said officers were called to ‘an ongoing disturbance which involved some agency workers and some children’ when they attended a disturbance at Luxor Road.

A spokesperson said: ‘More people started to attend the location and a decision was made to remove the agency workers and the children to a safe place.

‘A crowd started to gather and more officers were requested to attend the area, where some pockets of disorder were occurring.

‘More officers have been deployed to the area to assist with the management of this incident.’

Robbie Moore, the Tory MP for the nearby constituency of Keighley and Ilkley, was stunned by the mayhem 

He told GB News: ‘What we are seeing in Harehills is completely unacceptable. No-one living within those communities should see that level of uproar happening on the streets, it is completely unacceptable

‘We will have to wait and see what was the trigger, I’m not sure what it was for why these riots have taken place. But to see police vehicles being torched, being turned over, I think a bus has been torched as well, it is completely unacceptable.

‘West Yorkshire Police have my support in trying to deal with this situation. What is also deeply frustrating is the complete lack of respect by those that have been carrying out the riots … to the police themselves.

‘Unfortunately this seems to be a narrative that has been developing over a number of years where there has been complete disregard, complete disrespect to the law enforcers.

‘Unfortunately I have seen that, at a much lower level, in my constituency, but we have to make sure that the police have what they need, (and) have the time now to find out what the trigger was.’

In a statement this morning, Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin said: ‘I am absolutely appalled by the violent and thoughtless actions witnessed in Harehills last night. 

‘Such criminal behaviour will not be tolerated and I am in touch with West Yorkshire Police for regular updates on the progress of their investigation.’ 

Urging the public to ‘refrain from speculation’ and provide information and footage of the mayhem to police, she added: ‘I am relieved that nobody was seriously hurt in this incident – we will provide any support we can to the people of Harehills following the violence perpetrated in their community.’ 

First Bus, which operates Leeds’ bus services, confirmed that two of their vehicles had been involved in the riot last night, with one set on fire and another ‘caught up’ in the chaos.

A team from FirstBus’s depot was quickly deployed to the scene on to ‘provide support to our drivers and customers’, a spokesperson for the transport group said. 

‘We can confirm that both drivers are unhurt and we have no reports of injuries to passengers,’ FirstBus said in a statement to MailOnline. ‘One of our vehicles has been set on fire but was empty as the customers had earlier been transferred to another bus together with the driver.

‘All services are being diverted from this area of Harehills for the safety of our staff and customers. We will follow the advice of the police in deciding when normal routes will resume and update customers as soon as we can.’

As the violent disorder increased last night, Cllr Salma Arif, the local representative for the area on Leeds City Council, posted a video with a West Yorkshire Police inspector on X urging people to stay home.

The Labour councillor said: ‘There is an ongoing situation currently in Harehills… we are asking everyone in the area to please stay home at this point in time.’

Inspector Nicolls, the East Leeds neighbourhood police inspector, added in the clip: ‘If you can all just stay where you are, stay in your houses, we will manage this.

‘If you are in the crowd I would ask you to go home please, so we can keep everyone safe, thank you.’

Mayor Brabin later thanked ’emergency services’ for their response to what she has called a ‘very difficult situation’.

‘I’m being briefed by West Yorkshire Police and we are monitoring events,’ she wrote on X. ‘I’m reassured no one has been seriously injured but suggest those who are using this to inflame community tensions to think again.’

Despite there being conflicting reports about what triggered the shameful riots, prominent political figures including Reform Leader Nigel Farage condemned the behaviour as ‘the politics of the subcontinent’. 

‘The politics of the subcontinent are currently playing out on the streets of Leeds. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ the Clacton MP tweeted.

Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, hit back at Mr Farage, accusing him of ‘inflaming a situation with misinformation’.

‘This is a situation you know nothing about and no one has briefed you on. You are inflaming a situation with misinformation,’ he wrote on X. 

‘Politicians have a responsibility to not exacerbate situations particularly with no knowledge of them. I expect you to issue an apology.’

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was ‘appalled’ by the ‘shocking scenes’ and ‘attacks’ on Harehills.

‘Disorder of this nature has no place in our society. My thanks go to West Yorkshire police for their response. I am being kept regularly updated,’ she tweeted.

Leeds East MP Richard Burgon added: ‘I am on my way back to Leeds from Parliament and am in touch with the police and concerned residents about the on-going incident in Harehills. 

‘The police say no injuries have been reported but are advising people to avoid the area at the moment if possible.’

Police remain at the scene today. Leeds City Council was contacted for comment.