Just what is going on in Leicester? Last night violence broke out in the city after hundreds of young men in Covid masks and balaclavas took to the streets as part of an ‘unplanned protest’. The police attempted to contain the protestors but soon lost control of the situation. Videos posted online show officers struggling to contain the crowds while bottles fly and smash on the pavement around them. In another unverified video a group of men flip a car. According to the police, two arrests have been made and they are investigating several other incidents of violence and disorder.

For the past few weeks Leicester has become a kind of mini-Kashmir in the middle of England, with clashes, protests and disorder breaking out in the city between young Muslim and Hindu men. It’s a remarkable turn of events for a city which has long prided itself on being a functioning multicultural society, a place where Hindus and Muslims live alongside one another in relative harmony.

The trouble began at the end of August when, on a cricket field thousands of miles away in Dubai, India defeated Pakistan by five wickets in an Asia Cup match.

After the game large crowds of young men draped in Indian flags began celebrating on Melton Road in Leicester. The celebrations soon turned nasty – with fights breaking out, and one man arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker. Videos of the celebrations show Indian supporters appearing to chant ‘Pakistan Murdabad’, a partition era slogan which can be roughly translated as ‘death to Pakistan’.

According to Leicester police, this was followed by a ‘series of incidents’ in different areas of the city over the following week. The police have been coy about the nature of these incidents, but rumours – as of yet unverified – have spread online suggesting that gangs of young men have been targeting individuals of the opposite faith.

After the police put in place dispersal orders on 6 September and allowed officers to stop and search anyone without reasonable grounds, the nightly violence more or less came to an end in Leicester. I visited the city soon after the riots and walking down Melton Road it was almost hard to believe that in previous days gangs of young men had been brawling in the streets and in front of the pretty red brick terraces which line the city.

The police appeared to be making progress in their investigations, and said on Friday they had made 27 arrests in connection with the violence. Residents I spoke to were hopeful that things were now calming down after the cricket match and life would go back to normal.

Last night’s disorder though suggests the problem isn’t going away yet. On Saturday a large group of Hindu men protested in the city, with some shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ – a slogan which has increasingly been used by Hindu nationalists in India. Muslims came out onto the streets of Leicester as well, with videos showing the police struggling to keep the two crowds apart. In the evening a Hindu temple on Melton Road was vandalised. Someone climbed up on the roof to damage its saffron flag.

The police have called for calm, but calmness seems to be in short supply. Meanwhile residents are frightened to leave their homes. Ordinary people are angry about the violence – one Asian shopkeeper I spoke to suggested that if people want to fight over India and Pakistan they should do so in those countries. He also said he had been threatened with violence when he put up an England flag in his shop window during the world cup. Others in the city compared the cricket fans to English football hooligans.

For those who have spent their lives working on community cohesion in Leicester there is a sense of shock about the outbreak of violence. Earlier this month I met with Suleman Nagdi of the Federation of Muslim Organisations, a community group based in Leicester. Nagdi has lived in Leicester for 46 years and also runs a charity which deals with death and bereavement in the Muslim community.

He says that in general there has been ‘mutual respect’ between Leicester’s faith communities and large religious festivals take place without any issues.

Nagdi suspects that some of the recent violence in Leicester may be down to newer arrivals in the city from the Indian subcontinent, who are not yet ‘familiar with the norms of our society in this country’.

Whoever is to blame, it’s clear that rumours swirling online are making the situation worse. This weekend Leicester police released a statement confirming that social media posts which said that a mosque had been attacked were false. The Leicester East (and former Labour) MP Claudia Webbe has suggested that ‘far right elements’ are to blame for stirring up trouble on social media. It seems more likely though that rumours about attacks and violence are spreading within communities. And that Leicester’s position as a city with both a large Muslim and Hindu population means that escalation and retaliation is more likely on both sides every time a violent incident takes place.

In the meantime, the police are preparing for yet more violence this evening. The force has already been forced to close one road in the city after protestors gathered. And community leaders have urged young men to stay at home. We can only hope for Leicester’s sake that there is no more violence again tonight.