Nine people have been arrested and eight police officers hurt after violent clashes in Bristol sparked by a raid on opponents of a new Tesco store.

They broke out after police raided a property being used by squatters opposed to the store in Stokes Croft.

Eyewitnesses said police fought running battles with hundreds of protesters, who threw bricks and bottles at them.

Police carried out the raid because they feared the controversial newly-opened store was to be petrol bombed.

However, the raid led to trouble in nearby streets with bins and skips being set alight.

Full story is available from the BBC.

Last night, Bristol was on fire, as police battles raged through the Stokes Croft area of the city. Hundreds were on the streets, fleeing baton charges, tearing up cobblestones and flinging them at police.

Yesterday afternoon, Avon and Somerset police moved in to disperse a long-running protest against a new branch of Tesco, whose appearance, in a community which is rebuilding itself with the help of small businesses, had been contested by 95 per cent of local residents, according to a straw poll on Twitter.

The trouble began at 9.15pm on 21 April, when police sealed off Cheltenham Road and moved in to evict the squat. Police involvement in such evictions is normally a last resort if baliffs fail to break through, but this time they had search warrants based on what Superintendent Ian Wylie, leading the operation, called “intelligence received about the criminal intentions of those who were occupying the building”.

Four people were arrested, and police have released a statement saying that they found petrol bombs at Telepathic Heights, although Stokes Croft
residents dispute this.

Soon after the eviction began, almost two hundred police in riot armour arrived from local and Welsh constabularies, and the streets of Stokes Croft were rammed with riot vans.

The situation escalated quickly. Hundreds turned out in support of the squatters, who are well liked by the community, and the protest quickly incorporated local grievances against the Tesco, which is directly opposite Telepathic Heights.

Scuffles and fights broke out, and witnesses say that people began to sit down in the road, with police dragging them out of the way. Music began to play, and Stokes Crofters danced and chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!”

More than anything, it seems Stokes Croft residents wanted the police out of their neighbourhood, perhaps the most organic recent display of the anger and mistrust that many communities feel towards officers of the law.

As the night wore on, barricades were set up, running battles began, and bottles from the recycling bins that line Cheltenham Road were flung at the
police.

The picture was jerky, but the sound was perfect: over the noise of screaming helicopters and smashing glass, you could hear a lone saxophone player’s thick, mournful rendition of Gershwin’s Summertime. Around 1am, protesters began to smash up the new Tesco.

“Out of the corner of my eye I saw something large flying through the air and realised a rioter on the roof had found a large concrete block and thrown it, hitting an officer quite squarely and knocking him to the ground,” said Sam. “After that, the mood changed. The music which had been playing was instantly turned off and people backed away a bit. I think there was a general consensus that hoofing a massive slab of concrete off the rooftops at the police was a step too far.”

What happened in Stokes Croft has stirred up Britain’s growing anti-cuts and anarchist movements, with supporters travelling from across the country to Bristol today. It looks like it’s going to be a long, hot summer.

Full story is available from the New Statesman.

One bystander said, “I counted 13 riot vans last night, they limped off about 5ish half of them with flat tyres.”

Another Bristol resident, said: “The police picked a time when there would be hundreds of drunk lefty in the area, to perform a controversial action which inevitably led to pain and ‘twattery’ from both sides, to protect an empty shop.”