A fire has broken out at Sunderland Central Police station after riots erupted in the city.
Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in Liverpool and Sunderland for planned demonstrations after three girls were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service confirmed: “we are attending an incident there at the moment”.
Footage of the incident shows an inferno blazing from the property next-door which appeared to spread to the police station, while separate images show the building’s windows shattered.
A car is also on fire in the city and police have been subjected to “serious violence”, Northumbria police said, after rioters launched beer barrels and stones at them following a march through the city at around 7pm.
A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “The scenes that we are seeing are completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Ríot police have intervened in Liverpool too after far-Right demonstrators came close to clashing with counter-protesters outside the Abdullah Quilliam Society mosque. The anti-fascist activists, who number around 200, chanted “Nazi scum off our streets.”
Police in the city have been granted enhanced powers to stop and search and extra officers deployed in a bid to clamp down on the scenes of violence witnessed in Southport, Hartlepool and London in recent days.
More than 50 police officers have been injured and dozens of protesters arrested in the riots so far.
It comes as police forces across the country brace for a wave of expected disturbances over the weekend and next week in up to a dozen cities and towns.
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: “I’m appalled by scenes from Sunderland. Make no mistake, if your response to tragedy is to use it to commit violence, to abuse others, attack the police and damage property you stand for nothing except thuggery. It’s not protest.
“It’s crime and disorder. You don’t speak for Sunderland. You don’t speak for this region.
“Those grieving in Southport will take no comfort from this.”