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Days after an angry crowd marauded through Sunderland, people in the industrial port city are trying to make sense of what just happened.
Aug. 6, 2024, 12:26 p.m. ET
Last Friday afternoon, as the pubs in the northeastern English city of Sunderland were filling with young men, Lesley McLaren made a decision: She was closing up shop early.
She had heard about the riots in Southport after three children there were killed in a stabbing attack. Now, she worried that trouble might be coming to her own city.
She did not want to be out when the storm broke. And given the anti-immigrant fervor and racism that have marked the riots, she especially didn’t want her Sikh co-worker in the convenience shop, Simran Singh, to be on the streets.
“It’s too dangerous for him,” she said of Mr. Singh, adding, “because of the color of his skin.”
Just hours later, a violent mob swept through the streets. Rioters attacked police officers, looted stores, burned buildings and set a car on fire. Elsewhere in England and Northern Ireland the next day, people rioted in about a dozen other cities.
Much of the rioting was set in motion by false claims circulating online that the suspect accused in the stabbing rampage in Southport was an undocumented migrant. He was born and raised in Wales, the authorities say; the BBC has reported that his parents were from Rwanda. The police have not disclosed a motive for the stabbing attack, if they have determined one. Britain has very tight restrictions on what can be reported once a case is underway.
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