Cops unveil new £180k bullet-proof battle machine – 18 armoured 4x4s to tackle extreme riots unveiled by Met
ARMOURED cars have been spotted cruising London's streets after cops splashed out on military 4x4s to tackle extreme rioting.
With matte-grey paint, flashing blue lights and the word " police" on the side written in block capitals, the hefty vehicles are hard to miss.
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Several of the military-grade tanks intended to tackle rioting have been spotted weaving between lanes in London.
These are the "Sandcats" - the newest addition to the Met Police 's fleet, estimated to cost around £180,000.
The mammoth 9,000kg 4x4s can transport up to 11 officers and stands at 7ft 7in tall.
The new armoured cars will be used for 'high-risk armed policing operations' and 18 have been ordered in total.
The Met Police said the new trucks aren't yet being used in operations.
The force is currently training drivers, which is why they have been seen driving around London.
A spokesperson said: 'These are specialist armoured vehicles used for high-risk armed policing operations, by officers deployed at airports and as a contingency option for use in the most serious public disorder the like of which we thankfully rarely see."
Sandcats are manufactured by Israeli company Plasan and have been used by the military in several countries.
According to the company website, the Sandcat Tigris is the preferred choice for both the IDF and Ministry of Defence.
They replace the older Jankel models, which were deployed during the 2011 riots but have very rarely been used.
Fourth night of violence as families forced to hide in attics in riots which injured 41 cops
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The bullet-resistant Jankel Guardians that the force previously used cost about £100,000 each.
The seven-tonne personnel carrier could withstand AK-47 bullets and had a bomb-proof floor.
Over the past year or so, the UK has been rocked by disorder and rioting in the streets.
This week, masked yobs lobbed petrol bombs and fireworks at cops across four days of chaos across Northern Ireland.
Police described the riots as "racially-motivated hate attacks" with a senior officer slamming the scenes as "racist thuggery".
Several houses even put up signs identifying their residents as British or Filipino in an apparent attempt to avoid being targeted.
Violence originally erupted on Monday, stemming from an initially peaceful gathering to support a girl and her family after an alleged sexual assault.
Girl 'whose sex assault by teen boys' sparked 'racist' riots wants violence to end as 4th night of carnage erupts
By Emily Jane Davies
A YOUNG girl whose sexual assault by teenage boys sparked riots across Northern Ireland has called for an end to the violence.
Northern Ireland Police Chief Jon Boutcher said the girl had been "further traumatised" by the riots - as the fourth night of chaos unfolded yesterday.
Police quickly clamped down on hundreds of rioters who were spotted throwing missiles and petrol bombs in Portadown - less than an hour from where the riots started - last night.
Shocking footage showed thugs lobbing live fireworks at rows of police riot vans.
The chaos began in Ballymena on Monday night, hours after two 14-year-old boys appeared in court charged with attempted rape of a girl.
The boys confirmed their names - which cannot be reported - and their ages through a Romanian interpreter at Coleraine Magistrates' Court.
Cops decried the mass carnage which followed as "racist thuggery".
Northern Ireland 's Chief Constable told how the girl's family had been left "mortified" by the horrific scenes.
Speaking yesterday, he said: "I reiterate the retraumatising of this poor girl, she's been through enough through what happened to her on Saturday evening. She doesn't want any of this.
"I know the family are mortified. I've spoken to them personally, they've asked me to make this plea.#
"This girl's family and this girl want it to end. Our communities want it to end. We need it to end.
"Stop this violence. We will come after you. We will arrest you. We will prosecute you successfully.
"I want to specifically mention the 41 police officers who've been injured. Each of those officers have put themselves in harm's way to protect our communities.
"It is not in any way a way for a civilised society to behave and it must stop now."
Northern Ireland Police Chief Jon Boutcher said the girl had been "further traumatised" by the riots.
Last summer, Britain was a tinderbox as widespread unrest and disorder broke out following misinformation about the Southport child killer.
Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Da Silva Aguiar were murdered in a knife attack and social media posts falsely claimed they were killed by an illegal migrant.
The disgraceful rioters torched cars, police stations and mosques.
In 2020, Scotland Yard put out a notice saying it wanted to buy a new fleet of military-style trucks to tackle public disorder, firearms incidents and riots in the capital.
It wanted security, fire-fighting and defence equipment and armour plating.
Last year, it was reported that Police Scotland's £282,000 battle machine meant to be driven by "action man officers" has never been used.
The gas-guzzling 4x4 beasts are used by military specialists in warzones and by police tackling drug cartels in South America.
Yet, Police Scotland's bulletproof Sandcat has been locked in storage collecting dust for two years.
Insiders have previously claimed the reason it has remained idle is from a lack of officers able to drive it, with regular training needed to operate it.
The force has refused to comment on how many of its staff can use the 4x4 Sandcat.
Underneath the Sandcat's hood lies a huge 6.7-litre V8 engine that only does around nine mpg, which is about as fuel-efficient as an F1 racing car.
Although the armoured car hasn't seen any action, the force still believes it's necessary to keep it.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said at the time: "The specialist vehicle can be used in a number of scenarios linked to a major incident and improves our options to keep people safe.
"While it has not yet been deployed to a major incident, it has been used for training purposes and it provides additional operational capabilities."
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Telegraph
37 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The map that shows how Britain gave up on fighting crime
Every year in Britain, millions of crimes go unsolved. With only 7 per cent of the offences reported to police resulting in a charge, the most likely ending for a case is the marker 'investigation complete – no suspect identified'. For common crimes which affect the public directly – such as theft and vandalism – the figures are even worse, leaving victims feeling abandoned by a system that seemingly allows offenders to act without consequence. Police leaders have repeatedly voiced concern about their ability to fight back and called for greater financial backing. Those pleas took on a new urgency this week in the wake of the Government's spending review, with a projected £1.2 billion shortfall in funding now expected to grow. Senior officers said Chancellor Rachel Reeves's announcement of a 2.3 per cent annual spending increase would 'cover little more than inflation' and warned of 'deeply worrying' consequences to come, predicting there will be cuts across the 43 forces in England and Wales. Those dire forecasts will add to the despair felt by many, particularly those living in some of the biggest hotspots for so-called 'volume crimes', where 99 per cent of offences go unsolved. The Telegraph has visited a number of these areas, ranging from Newcastle to Blackpool, Cardiff and central London, to explore how the epidemic of lawlessness is going unchecked. Jump to: On a sunny Wednesday afternoon in Oxford Street, the throngs of tourists and Londoners jostling for space on packed pavements show little concern for their belongings. Unaware that they are wandering through the area of the capital most frequently targeted by phone snatchers, many are busy using their devices to check directions, send messages and film street performers. In the year to March, nearly 15,000 incidents of theft from the person – which includes phone snatching – were recorded in the part of Westminster which covers the area stretching between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road, including Soho. It is by far the highest rate per capita for any part of England and Wales, and 99.4 per cent of the crimes went unsolved. Just feet away from Oxford Circus Tube station sits a stall selling cheerful souvenirs. Between selling models of Big Ben, 'I heart London' T-shirts and novelty pens, Abdul Rahim has become a first responder of sorts. 'Every day customers are coming here and saying 'someone took my phone',' he says. 'I give them my phone to help but even if they call the police, it happens every day – they can't do anything.' Since Rahim started working on the stand in 2019, he has had a front-row seat for the evolving tactics deployed by phone thieves. Electric bikes are now the favoured method, allowing robbers to sweep alongside targets walking along the pavement, snatch devices from their hands and speed away within seconds. Many wear balaclavas and hoods to make identification impossible. 'They used to grab the phones and run but now they use the Lime bikes,' Rahim says. 'You can't stop them, they're gone. The other day, a woman was shouting 'help help' and we could see them but we couldn't do anything.' Rahim currently witnesses a phone snatching at least two or three times a week, with early mornings and late evenings currently peak time for criminals who prefer quieter pavements that allow a faster approach and getaway. Further down Oxford Street, staff working in the EE shop are getting five or six people coming in every day saying their phones have just been stolen. 'They come in asking what they are supposed to do,' says a female shop assistant, who did not want to be named. 'All we can do is give them a replacement SIM card. It happens loads.' Local councillor Patrick Lilley has been working with the police and council to try to crack down on the crime, but fears phone thefts have become even more rewarding for thieves since the advent of contactless payments and banking apps. 'As long as there's been valuable portable tech, criminals have targeted it, and mobile phones are now the gateway to people's bank accounts as well,' he says. Nationally, the picture is grim. Last year, 152,416 incidents of theft from the person were recorded across England and Wales, the highest figure ever. This is probably just a drop in the ocean, however, with the long-standing crime survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggesting the true figure is three times higher, with 'snatch theft' at its highest in two decades. Police are increasingly unable to deal with the workload, which has jumped 22 per cent in a year. Just 0.7 per cent of these types of theft result in a charge, down from 2.2 per cent a decade ago. 'I think the criminals target the more vulnerable people, and those who are not paying attention. [Mobile devices] are hypnotic – day and night everyone is on their phones, even if it's just for Google Maps, and they're not aware of who or what is going on around them,' says Lilley. The Metropolitan Police says it has been working to tackle 'industrial-scale' phone theft across London, and arrested 230 people and seized more than 1,000 stolen devices in a blitz earlier this year. A spokesman said the force was using phone-tracking data and intelligence to pursue groups responsible for both the thefts and the subsequent handling of stolen devices, adding: 'We will continue to intensify efforts to tackle phone thefts by increasing patrols in hotspot areas, including the West End and Westminster.' But Rahim has not noticed any long-term benefits from the operations so far: 'When the police are here checking it's quiet for a few days, but then it starts again.' The drive-and-dash hotspot on the M1 The Toddington service station is buzzing with activity on a damp Thursday morning, as commuters, lorry drivers and travellers make their pit stops while blasting up and down the M1. In the petrol station on the southbound side of the motorway, Ahmed* is serving a steady stream of customers as they dive in to pay for fuel and grab a snack from the miniature Greggs bakery handily situated by the till. At the same time, he is keeping a close eye on the multiple screens arranged around his till displaying CCTV images of the forecourt outside. Because Toddington is not only one of the UK's busiest motorway service stations – police data puts it as the country's number one target for petrol theft. Of the 271 thefts recorded by police in the three years to September, none have been solved. Ahmed has been working at the services' BP garage for 13 years, and is well aware of the risk. 'Sometimes it's two or three in a day, sometimes it's one or two in a week,' he says. 'They fill up, sit down in the car and run away.' Motorists driving into the petrol station are greeted by a large yellow and black sign warning that number plate recognition cameras are in operation, while a notice on the automatic doors reads: 'Warning: Anti fuel theft operation in action.' But persistent 'drive and dash' thieves have been trying to get around the technological advancements by removing number plates or faking registration numbers. 'We can check CCTV and report it to the police if there's a number plate, but sometimes they come in without one,' Ahmed says. 'If there's no plate or if there is a fake registration number, the police can't do anything. Another type of theft is when they come with a fuel can – sometimes they just walk in.' There are often repeat hits by the same offenders, he adds. 'One day, they will do a drive-off from here,' Ahmed says. 'We have another petrol station on the other side, and the same driver will then also go there. They go to different petrol stations on different days.' Some police officers spoken to by The Telegraph believe that motorway petrol stations are a particularly attractive target for thieves because of the speed at which they can drive away, swiftly moving into different counties and different police force areas, making it even less likely they will be investigated and tracked down. Officers recorded 44,091 instances of 'making off without payments' across petrol stations, shops and restaurants across England and Wales last year. The police bring just 1.7 per cent of criminals to justice in such cases. In over a decade witnessing frequent petrol drive-offs, Ahmed has only been summoned to court to give evidence against an alleged thief once. Increasingly, petrol stations are trying to use technology to protect themselves. For decades, they have used systems meaning fuel pumps have to be 'authorised' before being operated, but private providers are now offering systems aiming to link up CCTV, reporting databases and financial penalties. In the past year, the Toddington BP garage has started using one such system, which compares the model and registration of vehicles arriving at pumps to DVLA records. If the details do not match, the vehicle is flagged as suspicious. If a drive-off happens it can be instantly reported to the firm VARS Technology, which writes to motorists demanding payment and threatening a fine and civil enforcement action. Blacklisted vehicles set off alarms if they arrive at petrol stations using the same system, but police are not involved at any stage of the process. John Garnett, director of VARS Technology, expects demand for the firm's product to grow. 'Petrol stations don't really get any help from anyone – the police don't have the resources or the time to deal with them,' he says. 'The police figures are a massive undercount – petrol stations don't bother reporting it because nothing ever happens.' Bedfordshire Police, the force which covers the area in which the Toddington service station sits, said it was investigating reports of petrol theft, working with businesses and providing crime prevention advice. Chief Inspector Jim Goldsmith said: 'We understand any form of theft has a significant impact on businesses, including making off without paying for fuel. 'It is imperative that offences are reported to us so we can build an accurate intelligence picture and deploy police resources accordingly. In previous years, when we have seen peak periods of this type of theft, we have carried out additional high-visibility patrols to act as a deterrent.' * Name changed to protect identity The northern city blighted by vandalism Newcastle's Central Snooker Club building was a vision of luxury when it opened in the 1970s. It contained a hotel, bars and a health club, all linked by walkways in the sky. But for decades it has been mostly derelict, with the sprawling multi-storey complex now completely covered in graffiti and pockmarked with burn marks and smashed windows. The only person making use of the sheltered arcade that once linked up restaurants and a nightclub is a man urinating in a shuttered doorway. A steady stream of people are walking underneath the faded snooker club sign, through a decrepit passageway that remains in use as a link between a pedestrian bridge over Newcastle's Central Motorway and the city centre. At the top of a spiral staircase dropping people down into the busy shopping streets, a teenage boy sitting with a group of friends wearing hoodies and balaclavas says: 'It's been empty like this for years, now it's where the homeless people go.' The building sits on the edge of Newcastle city centre, which police data shows to have the highest rate of criminal damage and arson in England and Wales per capita. More than 1,500 such crimes were recorded in the three years to September, and 83 per cent have been left unsolved. Walking towards the city centre from the Central Snooker Club building, it becomes apparent that several large office and leisure complexes have fallen empty, and have since become targets for vandalism, including an incident in 2023 which saw a number of teenagers investigated at the time over suspected arson when a blaze forced the partial closure of a major road. Weeks later, a derelict care home was partially destroyed in an arson attack north of the city centre. Opposite a grand building that once housed a police station and court, a row of local businesses have their metal shutters covered in graffiti. The former police station is being turned into a luxury hotel. Shopkeeper Ali Khan wishes it had never shut. 'During Covid, a lot of people ended up closing and not being able to restart due to the financial pressure,' he adds. 'What happens is there are a lot of homeless people who will have a look in the empty buildings. The longer they're empty, the more of a play haven they are.' Asked whether he reports vandalism to the police, Khan scoffs and says that when he reported a man who came into his corner shop and threatened him with a machete, officers took three days to respond. Across Britain, that's a common complaint. Many incidents of arson and vandalism are never fully investigated, and suspects are not identified in 60 per cent of cases. Just 4 per cent of recorded incidents see a charge, down from 9 per cent almost a decade ago. In Newcastle, around the corner from where the Government is constructing a new multi-million pound headquarters for HMRC, Pacific House - once the city's largest restaurant - sits empty. Over the road, a closed branch of Frankie and Benny's still displays a sign on the door saying it is temporarily shut because of the pandemic. Chairs remain at the tables, and photos on the wall. But vandals do not always confine themselves to derelict businesses. The nearby Chop Chop noodle shop has chipboard covering a floor-to-ceiling smash to its glass frontage. A member of staff serving customers their lunch says she came into work one morning to find the damage, but has no idea why the restaurant was targeted. 'We tried to look at the footage on our camera but we couldn't see anything, we couldn't see the person's face,' she adds. Newcastle city council said the city was undergoing 'significant investment', with several major projects under construction that hope to attract new businesses and more visitors, and see empty buildings reoccupied. The derelict Central Snooker Club building is earmarked for demolition, and plans will see it replaced with a 29-storey residential tower, a new hotel, bars and restaurants. The council said recent months had seen a reduction in criminal damage in the city centre, while Northumbria Police said it was working to address 'pockets of disorder' around disused buildings. Neighbourhood Inspector Karen Madge urged locals to report offences, adding: 'We want Newcastle city centre to remain a great place for people to live and work in, as well as visit.' But back at the corner shop, Khan wants action. 'The council and the police have a lot to answer for in the city,' he says. 'I've lived here my whole life, I'm a born and bred Geordie and I've seen things go from bad to worse. It's a shame because we have a beautiful city, it just needs the right people looking after it.' The capital's car theft hotspot In front of rows of perfect white stucco London terraces facing an attractive garden square, an assortment of luxury cars gleam in the sun. This single residential street in Kensington is home to a Rolls Royce, a Maserati, multiple Porsches, Jaguars and a range of high-end BMW, Audi and Mercedes models. Some of the owners have fitted steering wheel locks, while others are trying to deter thieves with direct messages. 'Nothing of value has been left in this vehicle,' reads a bright yellow sticker branded with the Metropolitan Police logo on a Mercedes dashboard. Local residents, it appears, are keenly aware that they live in one of Britain's vehicle theft hotspots. The borough of Kensington and Chelsea had, behind Westminster, the highest rate of the car-related crime per population in England and Wales across 2024. Particularly badly hit zones include desirable postcodes around Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Sloane Square and South Kensington. In a smart mews around the corner from Gloucester Road Tube station, the Monaco of Kensington repair shop frequently sees the fall-out of the crime. Owner Anthony Barrell, 64, says customers come in every few weeks saying their cars have disappeared, while others have to book in repairs for smashed windows and stolen parts. 'We get people that have had high-end cars like Range Rovers taken – they come in to tell me, so that we don't start ringing them up saying 'your car is due a service',' he says. 'It happens a couple of times a month … It's common knowledge that this area is big for it. People phone the police and report their car has been stolen, and the police will say 'ok, here's your crime number' and that's it. They haven't got the manpower to investigate, and at the end of the day it's a car covered by insurance.' Barrell has seen trends in car theft change during his 15 years working in the repair shop, from manual break-ins targeting all kinds of models, to tech-savvy criminals targeting particularly desirable cars to profit from selling the vehicles or breaking them down for parts. 'The cars that are in this borough tend to be the high-end cars, and it's the high-end cars that get stolen,' he says. 'But the methods have changed, because now the criminals are more advanced.' Barrell believes the arrival of keyless technology has made the crime easier, because thieves can now 'trick' cars and quietly drive them away. Criminal gadgets allow two-person teams to pick up key signals from inside homes and relay them to the target vehicle, allowing them to unlock and start cars without having to break windows or burgle houses for keys. Increasingly, manufacturers and drivers are fitting cars with trackers so that if they are stolen, they can be tracked down. The revolution in car security has led to two decades of sharp declines in thefts. However, as with other crimes of this kind, the police appear increasingly unable to deal with such vehicles being stolen. Just one in 50 cases of a car being pinched result in a charge. In 2016, the corresponding figure was one in 15. Mike Boynes, from the Global Telemetrics tracking firm, says Kensington and Chelsea is its number one London location for recovering vehicles, which have an average value of £79,000. 'Gangs will have a list of cars that they need to find, and the easiest approach is to walk around Kensington and Chelsea,' Boynes adds. 'All thefts reported to us in the borough last year were keyless thefts. You can literally get in the car and have it away within three or four minutes, and you don't need to break any windows or anything like that. I think that makes it easier.' Boynes believes that while many high-value cars are shipped out of the UK to order, others are stolen to be stripped down for parts that can then be sold on. The Metropolitan Police said it had seen a 'spike' in the theft of cars in Kensington and Chelsea, and was increasing patrols in hotspot areas and investigating suspected perpetrators. Chief Inspector John Hine, from the borough's Safer Neighbourhood Team, added: 'We're also working closely with the public to offer crime prevention advice, and working with partners including the council to make best use of CCTV and street signage opportunities. 'We encourage victims of theft to report any instances to the police as soon as possible, so that we can attempt to trace the suspects and direct our patrols into the correct locations.' The tourist town ruined by rampant antisocial behaviour Blackpool town centre is quiet, with a grey Monday afternoon seeing seagulls outnumber people in the main shopping precinct as a cold wind blows off the Irish Sea. The seaside resort, where many shops and cafes are shuttered, is seemingly waiting to burst into life for the summer holidays. As a woman working at a cheerful souvenir shop on the seafront remarks: 'People come to Blackpool to have a good time.' But the alcohol-fuelled partying that accompanies many visits to the town comes with a significant side-effect – anti-social behaviour. Police data puts Blackpool town centre as the national capital of the crime type, with almost 5,700 incidents recorded in the three years to September. The category can cover anything from rowdiness to drug misuse, harassment, noise complaints and neighbour disputes. Particular hotspots sit on streets with the heaviest concentrations of bars, clubs and hotels, but also cross over into more residential areas. Sitting among rows of sambuca-flavoured rock, colourful buckets and spades and saucy fridge magnets, the souvenir shop assistant says that between the frequent holidaymakers and stag and hen dos, life in the town can be hard. 'You see homeless people on the floor begging and you get a lot of drunks, but we don't think anything of it,' she adds. At a branch of McDonald's sitting near the bottom of the famous Blackpool Tower, an employee emptying bins is not surprised to learn that the restaurant has been identified as one of the town's anti-social behaviour hotspots. 'We have had a stabbing here before, and there are always homeless people causing a ruckus,' he says. 'Sometimes they sit at the door and get in people's way. We get druggies and drunk people, stuff happens way too often. It's that kind of town.' Inside the nearby North Pier amusement arcade, the manager is keeping a watchful eye for potential trouble. 'In the [tourist] season, you'll get everything – stealing things off other customers, people pushing people out of the way and fighting for the money out of the machines,' says the man, who did not want to be named. 'Sometimes we ring the police, but we tend to just bar them.' A recent report released by Blackpool council said work aiming to prevent anti-social behaviour in the area was targeting people suffering from 'vulnerability and multiple disadvantage'. 'The cohort of people discussed include, but is not limited to, the town's aggressive beggars and rough sleepers causing a nuisance,' it added. But Kim Hughes, of the Blackpool-based homelessness charity Streetlife, disputes the assessment. 'It is absolutely not the case that those experiencing homelessness are responsible for anti-social behaviour in the town – if anything they're more likely to be a victim,' she adds. 'Blackpool keeps hitting the top of the charts regarding homelessness, which is a shame because it's an amazing town with a lot of people working really hard to turn things around.' The town is not alone in its struggles. About half of all of England and Wales's 7,264 neighbourhoods – as demarcated by the ONS – report at least a hundred cases of anti-social behaviour every year. A quarter report at least 200. Despite this, police response in the shape of fines, cautions or community resolutions have plummeted in recent years, from 328,448 in 2015 to 212,494 in 2024. In 2015, officers handed out 17,982 fines for 'drunk and disorderly' conduct compared to 1,508 last year. Meanwhile, just 404 people were penalised for causing distress, down from 8,263 a decade ago. In Blackpool, Hughes says locals endure 'absolute carnage' in periods that involve an influx of visitors drinking heavily, adding: 'There are certain things that are brought into the town because of the [tourist] season and the lively nightlife and alcohol, but we have our own homegrown problems that are generally rooted in poverty and a lack of options.' A spokesperson for Lancashire Constabulary said the force was working with the council and other agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour and was running a dedicated campaign. Paula Burdess, Blackpool council's lead for community safety, said it was trying to take a 'proactive, public health-led approach to preventing and intervening in anti-social behaviour'. She said some areas of the town had seen a significant reduction in recorded incidents following increased police patrols, adding: 'We are working to ensure that our town centre remains a vibrant, secure, and enjoyable destination for residents, businesses, and visitors alike.' The Welsh city where 98 per cent of bike thefts go unsolved In the eight years he has been running his bicycle repair businessnear Cardiff Central railway station, Dave Hann has frequently found himself at the forefront of the Welsh capital's bike theft problem. Within months of opening Motörlegs Cycle Workshop, the 56-year-old's apprentice told him that he recognised one of the bikes being fixed – and it was not owned by the man who brought it in. The pair called the police and arranged for the true owner to be at the shop when the suspected thief returned, but he 'saw the police, turned on his heels and ran' before officers could arrest him,' Hann says. Sitting beneath dozens of bikes dangling from racks on the ceiling of the former Victorian coach house, he recalls a recent incident where a woman was paying for her son's bike to be fixed when it was swiped from directly outside the shop. The business sits on the edge of one of the two worst hotspots for bicycle theft in England and Wales. In the three years to September, more than 1,300 thefts were reported to police and locals believe the figure is a vast under-estimate. Of the recorded crimes, 98 per cent went unsolved. Cyclists who have had their bikes, or parts of them, stolen are frequent customers of Hann's. While he is speaking, a young woman walks in asking for Hann to check over her bike, which no longer works properly after being recovered from a thief. Other customers come in with their bikes missing wheels, or with broken chains and frames from where criminals have tried to physically break locks. 'It happens on an almost daily basis,' Hann says. 'Even if people use D-locks round the post, the thieves have got portable angle grinders now.' He believes there is a roaring trade in both stolen bicycles and parts, including wheels and saddles, which are being sold for cash by people with drug and alcohol abuse issues. Hann reports any crime he suspects to the police, but rarely gets a response. 'I think there is less enforcement than there used to be,' he says. 'I'm not blaming the police, I'm blaming austerity – they've got less resources and they've got to choose their battles. 'But some people don't have a car, and their bike is their only means of transport. It's despicable.' Nationally, fewer than one in 50 of the 60,000-plus annual bike thefts are ever solved. Vast areas of England and Wales did not see a single individual punished for such criminality last year. Back in Cardiff, grey and drizzly weather hasn't deterred numerous cyclists from whizzing along segregated lanes around the city centre, and pedalling through nearby Bute Park. In the busy Queen Street shopping area, broken D-locks and chains lie on the damp ground by empty bike racks, with the bicycles once attached to them long gone. Inside the nearby Bike Lock cafe, founder Tom Overton is well aware of the risks, having had his own bike stolen six times before starting the business two years ago. It offers secure storage for up to 50 bicycles, alongside showers and facilities for office workers and train commuters. 'We're giving people peace of mind,' the 52-year-old says. 'A lot of people who use us come in and say, 'I had a bike and I got it stolen a few weeks ago'.' Overton believes that bike theft will increase as Cardiff becomes more cycle-friendly, with the spread of segregated cycle lanes and infrastructure. 'More and more people are cycling, so theft is going up and up,' he adds. 'I think there's also more confidence among the criminals that they will get away with it, coupled with fear in people over making a citizens' arrest.' Overton only remembers reporting one of his six bike thefts to the police, and believes the official figures are a 'huge underestimate' of the problem. South Wales Police has been distributing advice on how to prevent theft by double-locking bikes, removing wheels and saddles, using secure parking and registering or marking bikes so they can be recovered. 'We share concerns about bike thefts in Cardiff and welcome proposals by Cardiff council to improve the availability and security of cycle parking across the city,' a spokesperson said.
Sky News
5 hours ago
- Sky News
Why did Ballymena become the latest site of anti-immigration riots?
There have now been five consecutive nights of ongoing violence and disorder on the streets of Northern Ireland, with Ballymena at the focus of the unrest following a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the town on 7 June. Two 14-year-old boys were arrested and charged after the incident, and police in Northern Ireland said the pair used a Romanian interpreter to plead not guilty in court. After that, calls for "peaceful protest" from the victim's father were amplified online. Those protests took on an anti-immigration angle and erupted into riots and clashes with police. Analysis of social media messaging has shown there were already rising tensions in the town before the latest incident, following a decade of rapid demographic change. Before the protests On 30 May, eight days before the 7 June incident in the Clonavon Terrace area that triggered this week's violence, police released a statement regarding a different sexual assault in Ballymena, this time of a 13-year-old girl. The offence was alleged to have taken place on a public footpath near the Ballykeel housing estates, during daylight hours on Saturday 24 May. Local media at the time reported the suspect as having "dark-coloured skin, dark brown eyes, and speaking in a foreign language". On 31 May, a far-right news aggregator on messaging platform Telegram was already sharing information related to this incident, saying "Ballymena said to be at boiling point". But the online chatter remained relatively contained until after the police announcement on the evening of Sunday 8 June, that they had arrested the two 14-year-olds charged with the Clonavon Terrace incident. Analysis of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows that there were 114 mentions of Ballymena per day from 3-7 June. It was mentioned 142 times on 8 June, then surged up to 10,300 on 9 June and 78,300 the following day. The majority of posts originated outside of Northern Ireland. Rapid demographic change The descriptions of the alleged perpetrators of the two incidents have contributed to the anti-immigrant sentiment of the violence. Sky News has seen Union flags and signs saying "British household" or "Locals live here" left outside homes of people keen to avoid being targeted, and has also spoken to Bulgarian nationals in Ballymena who say that they are "terrified" and "scared to get out of the house". Speaking in the House of Commons, Jim Allister, MP for North Antrim, which includes Ballymena, said he was "appalled" by the violence. "However", he said, "the government must be aware of underlying tensions produced by uncontrolled and often undocumented immigration. "None of that excuses violence, but it is a matter of concern to many." Analysis of census data shows there has been rapid demographic change in the town since 2011. No other part of Northern Ireland has seen a bigger increase in people who don't speak English/Irish as a first language. At the time of the 2021 census, three in 10 residents of central Ballymena said their first language was something other than English or Irish. One in eight listed Romanian, with a similar number listing other Eastern European languages like Bulgarian, Polish and Slovak. That figure is almost seven times higher than the average across Northern Ireland, and amounts to a trebling over the course of the decade. Almost three-quarters of the total foreign-born population of central Ballymena arrived in the country since 2011. The average is significantly lower for Northern Ireland as a whole, and England and Wales, where the rate of change has been more gradual. Of 621 primary schools in Northern Ireland where data is available, Ballymena Primary and Harryville Primary, both in central Ballymena, had the 7th and 8th highest share of "newcomer pupils". "Newcomer" is the term used by the Northern Irish Department for Education to refer to pupils who don't have satisfactory language skills to participate fully in the school curriculum. How, and when, will the violence end? Sky's Connor Gillies, who has been in Ballymena reporting on the violence and talking to locals for the past few days, said on Wednesday that " the talk here is that this unrest is only just beginning," adding that "it could go on for weeks". Meanwhile, locals have expressed that they don't like the talk from police and politicians that taking to the streets following an alleged sex attack on a teenage girl equates to them being "racist thugs". Police have responded to rioters' petrol bombs and bricks with rubber bullets and water cannon onslaughts of their own. There have been tens of arrests, as well as injuries to more than 50 police officers since Monday evening. Violence and disorder in Ballymena raged across Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, appearing to have largely abated in the town by Thursday. However, the unrest has spread to other areas including Larne, Coleraine, Portadown and Belfast. A senior police officer insisted to Sky News that he did have "a grip" on the unravelling situation when questioned by Sky News, but officers from Scotland, Wales and England have been sent to bolster the forces of their Northern Irish colleagues. Anti-migrant rhetoric From 7-12 June, 39,000 Ballymena-related posts on X mentioned "migrants", with around 95% of them deemed to be negative by social media analysis tool Talkwalker. Well-known far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who thanked X-owner Elon Musk for his support when he was released from prison four months early on 27 May, was the most influential poster. His 14 X posts about Ballymena between 7-12 June reached an average of 1.3 million accounts each.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Moment Tube driver is caught KNITTING and watching videos on his phone while driving commuters
An easy-going tube driver was caught knitting and watching videos on his phone as he drove commuters around one of the busiest transport networks in the world. Striking footage shows the London Underground operative hard at work on a lion-themed garment as he pulls slowly out of Hendon Central Station in February 2025. The man's phone is also positioned comfortably in front of him so he can watch videos at his leisure. A witness who filmed the spectacle - which took place on a Northern Line train - commented disapprovingly, 'look at him... watching TV, pressing a couple of buttons'. He went on to reference the money the driver earns each year and claimed he can go on strike 'whenever he wants'. The witness later recalled: 'I was so surprised. 'I didn't expect to see someone meant to be at work being so casual about the job. 'Especially because at the time, there were tube strikes going on so it felt mad they were complaining about the job then relaxing on it. The man's phone is also positioned comfortably in front of him so he can watch videos at his leisure 'And, although I don't know how automatic the system is for the tubes, I remember thinking that this person has the passengers' lives in their hands. 'It felt crazy that this driver wouldn't take that more seriously.' Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed the driver in the video was sacked from his job. A spokesman said: 'This video was made earlier in the year. 'We carried out a full investigation and the person involved no longer works at TfL.' Many social media users have taken to TikTok to share their thoughts on the video. One person said: 'He's risking his career for a bit of TV.' Another added: 'The driver shouldn't be doing that, they should be focussing - that's dangerous.' But a number of people offered their support to the tube worker amid the criticism. Someone said: 'What do you want him to be doing? Steering?'
