Rioters leave Mr Basrai’s World Cuisine in Blackpool with '£40k' worth of damage after smashing windows

Violent disturbances broke out following a protest in the resort on Saturday, August 3.

Mr Basrai’s World Cuisine on the corner of Talbot Road and Cookson Street was one of the businesses targeted during the riots.

Thugs smashed all of the windows that look onto Talbot Road, resulting in £40,000 worth of damage.

The owner of the restaurant, Raghbir Singh Basrai, said he was “shocked” when he saw what had happened.

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“They broke the windows, all of them. We were so down we couldn’t open the restaurant in the morning,” he added

“We were so shocked. We phoned relatives and they came around and they sat with us.”

Mr Basrai contacted the local MPs, Chris Webb and Lorraine Beavers on September 4 after the incident and they attended the restaurant on September 5 for a meeting. 

The MPs have been contacting the police and Blackpool Council but the restaurant is yet to receive a response from the council. 

The restaurant bosses said that it wants the council to sit down with them and discuss any help or guidance that they can offer as the restaurant is one of its tenants.

One out of hours member did attend the restaurant to put barriers up after the restaurant raised concerns over health and safety over the broken glass falling from the windows. But this has been the only response from Blackpool Council. The restaurant is calling for more clarity from the council.

After contact from local MPs the police have visited the restaurant and spoken with the owners. 

He has since ordered new windows and hopes to fix the damage as soon as possible.

Mr Basrai said: “We called our local joiner team and we had to board all of the windows up on the Sunday morning to reopen the business,” Mr Basrai added.

“There was glass everywhere. All my staff and I started cleaning all the mess and all the glass. It took a good seven to eight hours.”

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The string of violent incidents began in Southport on July 30 - the day after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.

Thousands of people had turned out to pay their respects to Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, at a vigil in the town.

Violence later erupted outside a mosque in the town and 53 police officers and three police dogs were injured.

On August 3, riot police were involved in face-offs with protesters in parts of the UK.

Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and punks in Blackpool, with bottles and chairs being thrown.

The Gazette has contacted Blackpool Council for a statement.