Mayhill: Swansea rioters injure seven police officers

Seven police officers were injured when rioters threw bricks at houses and torched cars in Swansea.

A major clean-up is under way after cars were burnt out and windows smashed during the violence in the Mayhill area on Thursday.

Families spoke of being trapped in houses, with police "pelted with rocks" as they tried to break up the violence.

South Wales Police said seven officers suffered minor injuries when they were hit by missiles.

The force's Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan said he would "stop at nothing to find" those responsible.

Officers said they were using CCTV and social media footage to identify those responsible and urged people to send in any photos or videos.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said the scenes were "completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated anywhere in Wales".

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the scenes were "disgraceful" and thanked "brave officers for bringing it under control."

"Police have my backing to take robust action against those involved," she said.

Alun Michael, South Wales police commissioner, said Thursday's events were "unusual and extreme".

"Things developed very quickly and in a totally unacceptable manner last night and it's very important that we understand what's happened to make sure that it doesn't happen again," he said.

The force's response has been criticised by some residents who said they were faced by violent "yobs" outside their homes with no-one coming to their aid.

But South Wales Police said its response was "immediate and officers trained to deal with public order incidents were deployed to the scene".

Officers believe the disorder in Waun-Wen Road, which saw groups roll a car down the middle of the street into a burning car, started as a vigil for 19-year-old Ethan Powell who collapsed and died suddenly on Wednesday.

Adam Romain said he feared a "mob" would enter his home and attack his family when he tried to stop them setting fire to his car.

He told BBC Radio Wales he was out making deliveries when he got a panicked phone call from his girlfriend and could hear his children screaming in the background.

"I went back as quickly as I could, I drove up to my house, literally into a riot," he said.

He said he had to ride his motorbike through the middle of "about 100 lads" throwing bricks.

Mr Romain said he tried to stop a car being set on fire but was set upon.

"The bricks were starting to be lobbed at me and my house... my children were in the house, my girlfriend was in the back screaming, scared for their lives.

"I was standing at the front, hoping, praying, that they wouldn't come inside the house.

"They were coming to the front door, lobbing these bricks, straight through the glass door, straight at me - they had no fear whatsoever," he said.

Mr Romain said he rang police three times, but was told "we already know about the incident" and no-one came to help.

Mr Romain said only last month a van was rolled down the hill and smashed into his neighbours' van and his car.

He filmed the rioters on a helmet camera, capturing the faces of many of the culprits, and said he would share the footage with the force.

All that's left of the cars are their charred remains with melted plastic, broken glass, and molten metal on Waun-Wen Road.

The clean-up operation got under way at just after 07:00 with council workers arriving to clean up the mess.

A glazier firm arrived to look at homes which have several smashed windows.

There's a lot of anger about what happened.

A lot of people are upset that this was meant to be a vigil for a young local lad who died recently.

People are angry that children were terrified after seeing this happen. They are upset it was just too dangerous for the police and fire service to attend or stay at the scene because of the crowds here.

The council said it was continuing to support residents and has also now installed temporary concrete blocks on Waun-Wen Road to replace bollards that were damaged during the disorder.

Council area co-ordinator Bethan McGregor said: "What happened last night is not a true reflection of the Mayhill and Waun Wen community.

"This is a close-knit community where the vast majority of people care about one-another, as the amount of residents helping the council with the clean-up operation today has shown."

Despite being a "lovely" community, vehicles had been rolled down the hill in a similar fashion "at least twice" in the past three years, according to Sam Bennett, a community campaigner from the area.

Mr Bennett told Radio Wales residents had written to the council to request concrete blocks on the street back in February.

He added residents "don't have the confidence that something is going to be done anymore and that's why they're choosing to move".

Owen Pillai, who works with young people in Swansea, said "outrage and disgust" was an understandable reaction to the "inexcusable behaviour" but added he could see why the riot had broken out.

He called on authorities to realise "we all play a part in this".

Mr Pillai told BBC Radio Wales: "This is the result of decades and decades of a multifaceted undermining of resources, societal breakdown, generations of unemployment - you can't look at it in isolation unfortunately."

He said it was "a scientific fact young people want to engage in risky behaviour", and argued a lack of access to positive activities like sport could lead to problems.

Mr Pillai added: "We need to channel huge amounts of resource into listening, looking at restorative practice, involving these young people rather than just locking them away - they need to confront the reality of what they have done."