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UK police hunt suspects after anti-migrant protests turn violent

UK police hunt suspects after anti-migrant protests turn violent
Police promised Friday to track down suspects behind violence at a protest outside a southeast England hotel believed to house asylum seekers, after officers and vehicles were attacked. (X/@OneSixTwoThree1)
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Updated 18 July 2025

UK police hunt suspects after anti-migrant protests turn violent

UK police hunt suspects after anti-migrant protests turn violent
  • Eight police officers were injured and three vehicles were damaged, Essex police said
  • Essex police on Friday insisted officers would “continue to support those communities that want to peacefully protest“

EPPING, UK: Police promised Friday to track down suspects behind violence at a protest outside a southeast England hotel believed to house asylum seekers, after officers and vehicles were attacked.

The violence followed several demonstrations in recent days in the town of Epping which flared after police charged an asylum seeker with sex offenses.

Eight police officers were injured and three vehicles were damaged, Essex police said.

The unrest, which police blamed on people from “outside of our community,” comes a year after anti-immigration riots rocked the UK in the wake of the fatal stabbings of three young girls in the northern town of Southport.

Then, rioters targeted hotels housing asylum seekers in several different English cities, infamously attempting to set fire to one in Rotherham, northeast England.

Essex police on Friday insisted officers would “continue to support those communities that want to peacefully protest” but would not tolerate “acts of violence and vandalism.”

“After last night I’ve got a team of specialist detectives today that are combing through the body-worn video CCTV to identify those who are responsible,” Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper told AFP.

“And what I can say is if you’re one of those individuals you can expect a knock on the door.”

Hooper said the “selfish individuals” behind the violence were mostly “from outside of the area” and had traveled to Epping “intent on causing criminality.”

Right-wing agitators, including far-right activist Tommy Robinson, have been sharing posts and videos about the situation on social media.

Footage of Thursday’s protests showed masked people pelting police vans and jumping on them, as well as clashing with officers.

The disturbances came after police charged 38-year-old asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu with three counts of sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence.

The charges stem from allegations he tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl as she ate pizza at a restaurant in Epping, just northeast of London, on July 7 and again the following day.

He has pleaded not guilty, and appeared in court for a hearing on Thursday.

An asylum seeker from Ethiopia, he arrived in the UK irregularly after crossing the Channel on a small boat at the end of last month.

In the wake of the incident, local officials have called for the Bell Hotel to no longer house asylum seekers.


Mexico President Sheinbaum presses charges after street harassment

Mexico President Sheinbaum presses charges after street harassment
Updated 4 sec ago

Mexico President Sheinbaum presses charges after street harassment

Mexico President Sheinbaum presses charges after street harassment
Sheinbaum used her daily press briefing to say that she had pressed charges against the man
Sheinbaum said she felt a responsibility to press charges, because if not, where would that leave Mexican women?

MEXICO CITY: What should have been a five-minute time-saving walk from Mexico’s National Palace to the Education Ministry for President Claudia Sheinbaum has become a stomach-churning viral moment after a video captured a drunk man groping the president.
The brief clip has given the daily harassment and assaults that women suffer in Mexico their highest-profile platform. And on Wednesday, Sheinbaum used her daily press briefing to say that she had pressed charges against the man.
She also called on states to look at their laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report such assaults and said Mexicans needed to hear a “loud and clear, no, women’s personal space must not be violated.”
Sheinbaum said she felt a responsibility to press charges, because if not, where would that leave Mexican women? “If this is done to the president, what is going to happen to all of the young women in our country?”
Indeed, if Mexico’s president cannot be in the street for five minutes without a man approaching her from behind, putting his hands on her body and leaning in for a kiss, then it’s not difficult to imagine what women with hours-long commutes on public transportation are experiencing daily.
“I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country,” she said.
She said she had similar experiences of harassment when she was 12 years old and using public transportation to get to school. As president, she said, she felt like she had a responsibility to all women.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada had announced overnight that the man had been arrested.
The incident immediately raised questions about the president’s security, but Sheinbaum dismissed any suggestion that she would increase her security or change how she interacts with people.
She explained that she and her team had decided to walk from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to save time. She said they could walk it in five minutes, rather than taking a 20-minute car ride.
Brugada used some of Sheinbaum’s own language about being elected Mexico’s first woman president to emphasize that harassment of any woman – in this case Mexico’s most powerful – is an assault on all women.
When Sheinbaum was elected, she said that it wasn’t just her coming to power, it was all women. Brugada said that was “not a slogan, it’s a commitment to not look the other way, to not allow misogyny to continue to be veiled in habits, to not accept a single additional humiliation, not another abuse, not a single femicide more.”