The British government yesterday considered arming police with water cannon after the northern city of Bradford was hit by the country's worst race riots in two decades.
Bradford, the fourth northern city to suffer racial unrest in recent weeks, was quiet after two days of running battles between Asian and white youths that left 164 police officers injured and resulted in the arrest of 55 people. Rioters armed with hammers and baseball bats threw bricks and petrol bombs at police equipped with riot shields and batons.
The violence erupted after the white supremacist National Front planned a rally in the city, about 200 miles north of London. Political marches in Bradford had been banned.
An Indian restaurant, an Asian-owned petrol station and a white-owned bar were attacked in the unrest.
"About 10-15 white youths armed with baseball bats and bricks smashed windows and took the till," said the manager of the petrol station.
The Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, said police tactics were under review. He said officers were sometimes forced to be too cautious in the way they defended themselves against rioters.
"The way in which they are cautious - we don't for instance use water cannon - does actually place them in a situation of prolonged violence and anti-social behaviour," he said.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, said the government was ready to listen to police proposals on whether to equip them with water cannon.
The government was not, he said, considering "a wholly different form of policing". But he added: "If there are issues the police raise, we will listen."
The government believed that the weekend violence in Bradford was primarily a law and order issue, despite the presence in the city of right-wing white political groups.
"There may have been initially some provocation from the far right . . . but the evidence suggests that this is simply thuggery," the spokesman said.
"Whatever peoples circumstances, concerns, and grievances, there are absolutely no excuses for the sorts of scenes we saw Saturday and Sunday."
Charred vehicles, smashed windows and burnt-out buildings marked Bradford's Manningham district, the epicentre of the rioting.