|
Whispers circulated on Sunday afternoon that
the pub was going to be burned down. At 6
p.m. she locked the doors and, along with
her two children, went to her mother-in-law's
house in Cobden Street.
Just over four hours later she stood in the
street and watched her home burn down.
She said: "There was nothing I could
do except stand there helpless and watch
everything go up in flames.
"When I left the pub at 6 p.m. it was
just as a precaution I didn't expect to return
to nothing. No home, no job, no clothes,
no possessions, nothing. Everything I had
was in the pub."
Colin and Ann Dawber, of Duke Bar News, also
watched helplessly as their business was
attacked.
He said: "I had to stand in my own home
and watch these gangs trash the place and
not be able to do a thing about it.
"Within 15 minutes of the police moving
off just before 11 p.m., between 70 and 100
Asian youths came from the Daneshouse and
Stoneyholme area, set fire to the pub and
then started on all the shops on both sides
of it, using bricks, bats and lumps of wood
putting as many windows through and causing
as much damage as they could.
"All hell broke loose for 10 to 15 minutes
and then everything went quiet."
Some residents of Briercliffe Road and Ribblesdale
Street moved out of their homes for the night
and stayed with relatives on the other side
of town.
Mrs Ceridwen Chapman said that as soon as
her sister saw the Duke of York pub go up
in smoke opposite her home, she moved out.
Mrs Bernadette McLaughlin added that she
took her young children to their grandparents
because she was so frightened.
Further up Colne Road, a gang of between
60 and 70 Asian youths ran out of Newman
Street, destroying property.
They smashed the windows of Hartley Foulds
Funeral Service and worked their way along
the small section of shops and houses along
Colne Road, as far as Ivy Street.
Michael and Gloria Bird hid in their front
room with the lights off.
They saw men hitting the window with a cricket
bat, and when the laminated glass which they
had had fitted specially a couple of years
ago would not break, a brick was thrown.
Mr Bird, who had a fire extinguisher ready
at the front door just in case, said there
were scores of Asian men and nearly everyone
of them had either a baseball or cricket
bat in their hand.
He added that he had lived in his house for
more than 50 years, but he was not staying
any longer and he was now intending to move
out.
Miss Suzanne Abbott, who lives above her
Tramps hairdressing business, was in bed
when the yobs smashed the front door and
windows and ransacked her shop.
She said: "I was alone and terrified.
I could hear them banging, smashing and shouting.
For about half an hour different groups took
it in turn to have a go.
"I locked myself in the bedroom and
prayed it would soon be over."
Making their way to Ivy Street the gangs
smashed more windows and burnt out cars.
Mr Peter Neaves was watching the events from
his Ivy Street doorstep with his wife, Gillian,
and a few neighbours. They saw the Duke of
York pub go up in flames. Then all of sudden
a huge group of Asians appeared from nowhere,
heading towards them.
They all went inside and Mr Neaves watched
the rest of the action from the spy hole
in his front door. He saw a fire-bomb thrown
at a car across the road and another one
rocked onto its side. Then the group headed
towards his car. Various groups jumped up
and down on his and his wife's cars, as well
as two others and one on the back street.
They kicked them, hit them with bats and
threw bricks through the windows of the cars
and a couple of the houses.
Five minutes later everything was calm and
quiet.
Angry resident Mr Peter Cryer, who was helplessly
trapped inside his home in Ivy Street, is
demanding tougher policing.
He said: "I want my property to be safe
and I want protection from the police. But
if we do not receive it, we will be forced
to take action ourselves. This needs to be
sorted out quickly, otherwise it is just
going to get worse."
|
