City Centre Update

Rioting has broken out this evening in Birmingham city centre, but police are playing down reports of major incidents.

The problems have been centred around the Colmore Row/St Phillip’s Cathedral area, with several shops including exclusive fashion chain Louis Vuitton damaged by gangs of youths. There were also reports of vandalism near the Bullring centre and on High Street. However, police have stated that the disorder is “nowhere near” the scale of similar disturbances in London.

So far nine arrests have been made, six of them juveniles, for public order offices, but this figure is expected to rise during the night.

A police spokesman said that disturbances have been confined to the city centre and denied rumours spread on social networking sites that the city’s Childrens Hospital had come under attack.