Far-right demonstrators have attacked at least two hotels housing asylum seekers as the United Kingdom grapples with its worst riots in 13 years.

On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered near a Holiday Inn Express hotel used to house asylum seekers near the northern town of Rotherham, throwing bricks at police and breaking several hotel windows, then setting bins on fire.

Footage from UK broadcaster Sky News showed a line of police officers with shields facing a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers, as they sought to prevent the rioters, many of them masked, from entering the hotel.

A police helicopter circled overhead and at least one injured officer in riot gear was carried away as the atmosphere turned increasingly febrile.

“The behaviour we witnessed has been nothing short of disgusting. While it was a smaller number of those in attendance who chose to commit violence and destruction, those who simply stood on and watched remain absolutely complicit in this,” said Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield. “We have officers working hard, reviewing the considerable online imagery and footage of those involved, and they should expect us to be at their doors very soon.”

Late on Sunday, Staffordshire Police said that a hotel near Birmingham, which was known to have sheltered asylum seekers, was also targeted.

“A large group of individuals” have been “throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires and targeting police” at the hotel in the town of Tamworth, with one officer injured, the statement said.

The unrest is the latest in a wave of rioting in the country since a stabbing rampage at a dance class last week in the northwestern town of Southport left three girls dead and several more injured.

According to police, false rumours were spread online that the 17-year-old suspect in the knife attack was a Muslim immigrant. He was named in court last week as British-born Axel Rudakubana after a judge lifted reporting restrictions related to people under the age of 18.

Speaking on Sunday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised a swift response.

“I guarantee, you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” Starmer said in a TV address.

There was “no justification” for what he called “far-right thuggery”, which has led to attacks on mosques and assaults on Muslims and ethnic minorities, he added.

“People in this country have a right to be safe and yet we have seen Muslim communities targeted and attacks on mosques,” Starmer said.

“To those who feel targeted because of the colour of your skin or your faith, I know how frightening this must be,” he said.

“I want you to know this violent mob does not represent this country and we will bring them to justice.”

Starmer had been criticised by some for not being vocal enough in denouncing the explicitly racist and Islamophobic nature of some of the attacks committed by those rioting.

Zarah Sultana, a Labour MP who is currently suspended from the party for voting against the government, called on social media for Parliament to be recalled from its summer break.

This is the moment rioters set fire to grass in Rotherham with police holding the line across from them.

Rioters were also breaking into a Holiday Inn hotel and throwing items towards police. https://t.co/U56wIrPQTO

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/TgQI0AWSyD

— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 4, 2024

Xenophobic rhetoric

Elsewhere in the UK, the atmosphere was also tense. In the northeast town of Middlesborough, protesters broke free of a police cordon. As protests began in Bolton, near Manchester, police said that a dispersal notice had been authorised to give officers extra powers to tackle antisocial behaviour.

Police officials have said many of the actions are being organised online by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilising support with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats”. They are tapping into a narrative – amplified by right-wing media outlets and commentators – about the scale of immigration in the UK, in particular migrants and refugees arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.

The new disturbances came after police said that more than 150 people had been arrested since Saturday following unrest in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Blackpool and Hull, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Critics have repeatedly pointed out that the spread of misinformation and the amplification of xenophobic rhetoric about immigrants and minority communities in the UK has led to the current outbreak of violence.

Rosa Freedman, a professor at the University of Reading, told Al Jazeera that the riots were a result of the former Conservative government, which lost power last month, giving legitimacy to a small minority of “racists”.

“Instead of hiding their faces, they have now been coming out… we cannot blame a Labour Party that has [only] been in government [for] the past four weeks,” she said.

“There is a conversation that needs to be had in the UK and other countries about immigration…. We also need to tackle this from a human rights lens.”

Police have noted that calls to hold riots have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson.

He led the English Defence League, which the Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack. Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the UK last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, who was elected to Parliament in July for the first time as leader of the right-wing Reform UK, has also been blamed by many for encouraging – indirectly – the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days.

While condemning the violence, Farage has criticised the government for blaming it on “a few far-right thugs” and saying that “the far right is a reaction to fear… shared by tens of millions of people”.

The anti-far-right group Hope Not Hate condemned the framing of the protests as “outpourings of legitimate anger”.

“They are not. This is racist violence spurred on by far-right hatred,” the group said in a statement. “Those directly involved in these horrifying scenes need to face the full force of the law.”

“Responsibility also lies with those who have promoted and defended these riots such as Tommy Robinson. This explosion of racist violence across the country is the result of years of far-right agitation,” the group said.

“However, these events are also the result of a climate of anti-Muslim and anti-asylum seeker hostility stoked by elements of our media and supposedly mainstream politicians.”