A disabled woman has said she is now “trapped” after rioters torched her car during violent clashes in Cardiff overnight.
Trouble started on Monday evening after a serious crash on Snowdon Road in the Ely area in which two teenagers died.
Clashes continued into the early hours of Tuesday morning, with people throwing fireworks and other missiles at riot police.
Jane Palmer watched from inside her home on Highmead Road as her Ford Focus was set alight. Her family tried to stop the fire using water from their garden hose.
“I’m disabled, so now I’m trapped without my car,” she said. “Why are they doing this? It’s just silly now.”
South Wales Police were called to the scene of the collision at around 6pm last night but stressed the crash had already occurred when officers arrived. Specially-trained public order officers were deployed to the scene to deal with the violence.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Travis said: “The level of violence towards emergency services and the damage to property and vehicles was totally unacceptable.
“Our focus now is to fully investigate the circumstances of the collision and the appalling scenes that followed.”
One Highmead Road resident, who wanted to stay anonymous, said: “Enough is enough now. This has gone beyond. When people are making fun of what’s happening on social media it’s crossed a line.
“This is our neighbourhood and those doing this are just kids. It needs to stop.”
South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael said it was lucky police officers did not sustain more serious injuries during the rioting.
“People will be brought to account for the violence. Obviously very frightening for local people. And there were a lot of calls to the police expressing concern about what was going on,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Asked about objects and missiles being thrown at police, he said: “My understanding is that those things were thrown at the police and about a dozen officers were injured.
“None of them life-threatening, fortunately, but of course, there’s a lot a lot of luck involved in that.
“Officers were mobilised to the area and there was support from neighbouring forces.
“My understanding is that there was a road traffic accident involving two teenagers on an off-road bike or scooter and sadly, they died. That’s an incident obviously that is being investigated in its own right.”
