Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on a double decker bus set on fire during riots in Leeds

Leeds has been rocked by riots overnight, which has seen a police car overturned and a double-decker bus set on fire. 

It began after police were called to a disturbance involving agency workers and children at an address in the Yorkshire city early in the evening, which then escalated into violence. 

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says no injuries have been reported. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time to catch up with UK correspondent Gevin Gray and
some pretty concerning images out of Yorkshire in Northeast England.
Gevin these riots to tell us about what's been going on.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, Jack, and uncertainty is for the court, but let
me start by what started well. A number of police
were called after seemingly some sort of disorder which then
became some serious disorder. A police car was flipped over,
a bus was set alight, Barricades were made in streets
in the Harehills area of Leeds. It's quite a rundown

(00:32):
part of that city in the northeast of England. In
Yorkshire and Police Force said they were called to a
disturbance at an address at around five pm local time
and then further pockets of disorder spread out. Indeed, social
media videos show big crowds on the streets and this
police car being attacked with a scooter before it was

(00:54):
then flipped over. The local MP saying she's appalled at
the shocking scenes. Injuries have been reported, but right through
until very late into the evening, hundreds of people remained
gathered around as the streets were strewn with rubbish and
other debris. Police had the missiles thrown at them. So
why did it all start. All we're being told is
that police were called to quote an ongoing disturbance which

(01:17):
involves some agency workers and some children. When they attended
a disturbance, more people started to attend the location and
the decision was made to remove the agency workers and
the children to a safe place. So we don't know
why the agency workers were there, what agency workers they were.
All sorts of speculation which I won't add to. I'm

(01:38):
sure we'll get more details. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, some of those images were pretty remarkable, to be
perfectly honest, I mean, especially that fust thing. See the
light it was that was shocking. Now, the outgoing NATO
boss says Europe must be prepared forget this a decade
of the Ukrainian war.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, yeah, So Jen Staltenberg's ten year ten comes to
an end in October. In November, we get to the
presidential election in America and if Donald Trump wins a
second term, he's already said that he would either completely
cut aids to Ukraine as into zero or severely drastically

(02:17):
reduce it, And of course that means we've got a
war going on on the doorstep of Europe, and that's
why Jen Stottenburg is warning both Europe but also the
rest of NATO that they really do need to be
aware this is going to be a long drawn out affair.
And of course NATO's funds as well are something that
a second term for Donald Trump might might be cut

(02:41):
back on. He's already suggested that NATO members should be
paying more than America. So what Jan Stoltenberg is saying is, look,
we need to be prepared for it to last a
long time, and ironically saying that the more we fund
it now, the faster a resolution might be reached.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
And Gavin five environmental protests who blocked a major London
motorway in twenty twenty two have been sentenced to jail, yes, and.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Quite long terms, which surprised people, but I think as
well a lot of motorists who were affected on the
actions that they took were delighted. So in November of
twenty twenty two, forty five just top ball protesters climbed
gantries on the London Orbital Motorway, the M twenty five.
It's a massively busy road even when it's quiet, and

(03:29):
of course when they were up in the gantries. The
police said, well they're not safe. They may four drivers
may crash, so they shut the motorway. It was said
to cost fifty one thousand hours of driver delays, cost
the economy at least one and a half billion New
Zealand dollars and indeed cost the police operation two millions.

(03:51):
So there was huge anger at the time. And now
five of the main ring leaders who organized that protest
have been jailed, the ring leader five years imprisonment, the
others or four years. We had become, i think, so
used in this country to people being just let off
with a little smack on the risk of some community
service work that when the length of jail tones was

(04:12):
read out, I think there was genuine shock in the court.
But looking at the daily papers, many of them saying,
at last we are getting some serious sentences for those
who commit these crimes and cause such inconvenience.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
UK correspondent Gavin Gray, thank you you take care.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
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