Mayhill: Swansea rioters face robust action, police vow

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media caption Social Media footage of Swansea 'yobs' setting cars on fire

Rioters who threw bricks at houses and torched cars in Swansea will be met with "robust action", police have said.

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.

Supt Tim Morgan, of South Wales Police, said the violence was "totally unacceptable".

Officers believe the "disorder" on Waun-wen Road, which saw groups roll a car down the middle of the street into a burning car, started as a vigil to a local person who recently died.

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

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Adam Romain, who lives on the road, said a "mob" threw bricks at him, and pelted his house, as his 16-month-old baby and four year old child sheltered inside, when he tried to stop his car being set on fire.

He told BBC Wales: "They started lobbing bricks at me, they started lobbing bricks at my house, with my babies in the house.

"They smashed through my front window, they smashed through my front door... they had no fear whatsoever."

image copyright Social Media

image caption Social media footage shows a car rolling down a hill, crashing into a burning vehicle

On social media, those who appeared to know the man who died, spoke of their anger about the violent events, saying that was not what he would have wanted.

Those living in the area were urged to stay indoors as officers remained at the scene, and investigations into what happened began overnight.

image caption A clean-up has been organised by the community following the violence

Supt Morgan said: "Last night's incident was totally unacceptable and we will be doing all we can to identify those responsible.

"I want to reassure the community of Mayhill that those involved can expect to face robust action. Post incident investigations have already started to identify all those concerned."

Another family said their 90-year-old mother had her windows smashed and was being evacuated - but did not want to be identified as they did not "want to be targeted."

Crowdfunding page

A clean-up has been organised by the community, with pictures showing residents on the street waking-up to ash on the road and broken glass.

Windows, smashed during the violence, have been boarded up, with council street cleaning vehicles in the street.

A crowdfunding page, set up to help those whose homes and cars were damaged, has raised over £1,300 in less than 12 hours.

image caption Burnt out cars have been removed from the street, with council street cleaners working in the area

At the scene

BBC reporter David Grundy

It's the morning after the night before.

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's just 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 his happen; people are upset too that it was just too dangerous for the police and fire service to attend or stay at the scene because of the crowds here.

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