We were chased by a group of men trying to protect their community from the ‘far right’ - Where were the police?
6 August 2024, 09:25 | Updated: 6 August 2024, 10:00
Reports had circulated online of a planned march through a densely populated Muslim area in Birmingham yesterday.
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Messages we read in a Telegram group, full of racist hatred, detailed plans to ‘take back our streets’ after ‘Muslims had taken over’.
We understand businesses around Alum Rock, in the east of the city, had been told to take precautions and NHS services advised to close early and put contingency plans in place.
When I arrived on Bordesely Green, with my security detail, at around 6pm, very quickly we could feel that we weren’t welcome.
We tried to walk the long way around the crowd of hundreds of mostly Muslim, South Asian men, to report on what was happening from a safe vantage point.
They had come out in large numbers to ‘protect their community’, wearing hoods and masks, flying Palestinian flags and for some, carrying what appeared to be weapons.
We had abuse shouted at us from passing cars - about the EDL - and one man told us we “would regret” being in the area as he advised us to leave immediately.
Two minutes later, as we kept walking, a group of around six South Asian men started walking towards us, carrying what looked like a metal pole.
We turned around and walked the other way before they started chasing after us, shouting as they did so.
We were forced to run.
For the next 20 minutes, every way we turned, we faced more abuse and more dodgy looks, and cars appeared to be circling around us.
At the same time, we now know, a crew from Sky News was also forced off air and had their tyres stabbed by another man.
We eventually managed to get back to the city centre, deciding that was the best and safest place for us to report on what happened.
The ordeal was terrifying. I was tired and my heart was racing.
I’ve never been chased and threatened in that way.
But what struck me - and what led us to the decision that it wasn’t safe for us to stay in the area - was the lack of a police presence.
In the 40 minutes we were there, we saw perhaps two or three police cars driving past.
There were no officers on the streets that we walked. There were no vans on standby nearby that I could see.
It felt like it was them against us - and there were a lot more of them.
The ‘far right’ didn’t show up. But this community was on edge and its members looked ready for a fight.
This week’s riots have left tensions running very high but the atmosphere among these South Asian men was just as hostile as some of the anti-immigration demonstrators who have sparked violence on the streets of towns and cities across the country.
We’re reporting the threats we faced to West Midlands Police.
And we’ll continue to do our job. We won’t be deterred. The public needs to know what’s happening - on all sides.
