Police restored an uneasy calm Sunday to Bradford, northern England, after a night of race riots described as among the worst seen in the country for years.
Police chiefs said 120 were hurt and 36 people arrested as gangs of mainly Asian and some white youths fought running battles with police.
Officers were attacked with baseball bats and hammers and came under a hail of bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and fireworks. Two other people were stabbed and vehicles and buildings set on fire.
A BMW garage was torched and some of the cars driven at police lines.
"What took place was sheer, mindless violence -- it was people acting in a totally anti-social and thuggish fashion," Home Secretary David Blunkett said.
The violence erupted after several hundred mainly Asian youths gathered for a rally Saturday by the Anti-Nazi League against the far-right National Front, which had indicated it was planning a march in Bradford.
The city has an Asian population of about 100,000.
Clashes in the city centre later moved to the Asian Manningham district. At one point, up to 900 police officers were involved.
Police Assistant Chief Constable Greg Wilkinson told a news conference that of the 36 people arrested, 13 were white and 23 Asian.
He said that although calm had now been restored, police would monitor the situation for days to come.
He admitted there were times police were battling to stay in control as the sheer ferocity of the rioting had been "surprising."
"Our strategy was to stop crime, disorder and to disperse those involved," Wilkinson said.
"The strategy was not successful, but we did the best we could. We do have an excellent track record in follow up arrests, and those people involved had better be looking behind them."
He said many officers had been hospitalized for head injuries and bruising, but only one was detained overnight, and that was for a severe foot injury.
Two police horses were also hurt. One had been stabbed.
The violence was the latest in a wave of race riots in the northern English towns of Burnley, Leeds and Oldham, which all have large Asian communities.
In each case, there had been simmering tensions between whites and Asians, but in each case police bore the brunt of attacks -- BRADFORD, England (AFP)
