On the corner of a street in Harehills, a crowd of people gathered around the charred shell of what was once a double-decker bus. The smell of smoke hung in the air, while a police helicopter hovered overhead.
Some in the community were curious, recording what was happening on their phones, while others leapt into action.
Image: A double-decker bus was set alight during the unrest. Pic: Yapp App
Image: The charred remains of the bus
Those people included a group of men led by Mothin Ali, a local councillor who led a group trying to douse the bus in water.
Speaking to us afterwards while sweating and clearly exhausted, Mr Ali repeatedly mentioned wider social concerns, including issues like poverty and social exclusion as part of a powder keg that was waiting to blow.
Amid the chaos of a febrile night in Leeds was a lack of clarity around what exactly happened.
Image: A police car was flipped over. Pic: Snapchat/Kardo
In their statement, the police alluded to an incident that involved agency workers and some children being removed to a safe place before crowds gathered.
It’s unclear how just yet, but what happened next sparked scenes that gathered national attention. The tension was still palpable when we arrived, which is why perhaps the police initially hung back, waiting until around 2am to disperse the crowd, before their own vehicles and two fire engines arrived.
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The flames might have been extinguished, but now the questions will begin not just about what happened, but why what was apparently one incident spiralled into this level of disorder.
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