Video: Big police operation keeps Bradford streets free of feared rioters

A HUGE police operation involving more than 1,600 officers has won praise for keeping apart rival protesters in Bradford city centre and preventing a feared repeat of the rioting which tore the city apart a decade ago.

Thirteen people were arrested for public order and offences of violence on Saturday during a protest by the far-Right group the English Defence League during which stones, bottles, cans, cigarette lighters and smoke bombs were thrown.

Eight of those in custody are from Bradford, with others coming from Leeds, Wakefield, Wolverhampton, Walsall and Birmingham.

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About 700 supporters of the EDL, including a handful of women and children, attended the protest, despite the organisation's leaders dubbing it "the big one" in an attempt to galvanise support.

During the protest around 100 EDL supporters climbed over a temporary 8ft barricade – aimed at keeping them inside the city's Urban Gardens – to get on to neighbouring waste ground from where they threw stones towards police. As the skirmishes were breaking out, nearly 300 people gathered a short walk away – behind a steel fence put up by police –- for an alternative event hosted by Unite Against Fascism/We Are Bradford.

In the days before the rally, Bradford community leaders called for calm fearing demonstrations could provoke a violent reaction to rival the 2001 Bradford riots, where 191 people were given sentences totalling more than 510 years.

Saturday's "static" demonstrations followed a ban on public processions in Bradford over the Bank Holiday which was granted by Home Secretary Theresa May.

Praise for the police came from council leader Ian Greenwood who said: "The police worked effectively to handle the situation and to respond quickly to the events as they unfolded."