Councillor who tried to stop Leeds rioters speaks out after violence

A councillor who tried to stop the Leeds rioters spoke out after the violence.Source: PA

Transcript

00:00The scene was absolute mayhem. There were, at the peak of it, there was probably about

00:041,500 to 2,000 people on the scene. So it was quite chaotic. It was absolutely crazy out here.

00:13So what we were trying to do was just, first of all, we were trying to shelter the police.

00:17Myself and a couple of other colleagues, a couple of community activists, we were trying to,

00:22we acted as human shields for the police because they were there without right gear,

00:26without helmets, without shields, being pelted at with bricks and bottles. The police did try,

00:32about nine o'clock-ish, they tried to come and re-establish themselves,

00:38but they just didn't have the numbers. I mean, they didn't have the support from outside,

00:43so they didn't have the numbers to come and re-establish themselves and take control of

00:46the situation. The good thing is the people were angry, but they weren't turning on each other.

00:51So they weren't attacking other people. So that's the most important thing. There was a couple of

00:57passengers on the bus. There's a woman coming home from work and a woman trying to get to work.

01:02Absolutely terrified. I got the bus driver to reverse back here and I got those two passengers

01:06off and I escorted them up that back alleyway and away from the scene because they were absolutely

01:12terrified. So legitimate anger is appropriate, legitimate anger is appropriate,

01:21frustration is appropriate, but attacking a bus with innocent people on it is not.