“If I think about it too much I could cry to be honest,” said Victoria Rose, dropping her baby off at a day nursery. “This really is not Hartlepool, that is why I’m so upset about it.”
She was speaking on the morning after hundreds of rioters, including children, took to the streets of Hartlepool throwing bricks and other missiles at police in an evening of violence described by witnesses as mindless and indiscriminate.
Like many people, Rose watched it unfold on social media. “It was deeply upsetting and I was worried about bringing my son in this morning. I’m just really unhappy and sad.
“The violence does not represent us at all, Hartlepool really isn’t like this.”
The violence centred on Murray Street, which is a mix of residential and local shops with two mosques.
Claire Dickson lives on the street and watched the violence from an upstairs window.
“At first it was fine but it just got out of hand, it was absolutely mental. It was adults and children throwing bottles, throwing eggs, throwing bricks at police. They were shouting ‘Tommy Robinson’ and ‘save our children’. It was horrendous. When they started throwing bricks, I was petrified … I don’t feel safe. Innocent people are getting hurt.”
She said the protesters were targeting mosques in the street and being stopped by police.
The protesters set fire to a police car and smashed the windows of a butcher’s shop, possibly trying to steal eggs.
A few doors down Lucy Wallace was opening her hairdresser shop, thankful that her business was not damaged.
“I watched it on TikTok Live for about four hours. It was awful, just so sad, especially when the butcher’s window went through. He’s been there about 30 years, it’s just so shocking.”
Several people told the Guardian that an Asian man was walking in the street and got punched in the face for no reason. “It was vile,” said Wallace. “It brought tears to my eyes.
“This isn’t Hartlepool. What happened last night was just an excuse to commit crime … I just can’t believe the age of the kids chucking bricks at the police. Everything just feels very pitted against each other at the moment.”
Cleveland police said eight people were arrested on the night and it expected further arrests to be made in the coming days.
Crews from Hartlepool council were out from 1am cleaning up the streets after the disturbance.
Jonathan Brash, the town’s Labour MP, was in Murray Street first thing on Thursday, chatting to residents. Later he would meet police chiefs, he said.
“I’m feeling distraught, disgusted, angry,” he said.
“There is no justification or excuse for what happened. People waking up this morning will be feeling the same way, they’ll be horrified at the behaviour of a very small minority who don’t represent Hartlepool or our values or what we stand for.
“These people aren’t us and I know people will come together and stand up to them.”
Several people were shocked by the young age of many of the rioters.
“It was just vandalism, it was just mindless violence,” said nursery worker Alison Quinn. “I do feel sorry for the police … I don’t think they have any authority any more.
“There are really, really good people in Hartlepool but on social media it comes across that everybody is like this and we’re not. This is awful. Hartlepool is a nice place but I do worry what will happen next, that it will happen again.”
