Protests erupt after man shot dead by UK police amid calls for calm

Protests erupt after man shot dead by UK police amid calls for calm
# 05 January 2017 17:20 (UTC +04:00)

Video footage has emerged of a group of men attacking a police car in the north of England, following the fatal shooting of a 28-year-old man by an armed officer.


Yassar Yaqub was shot three times through the windscreen of his car by police marksmen as he drove down the M62 motorway near Huddersfield in Yorkshire.


West Yorkshire Police say they found an illegal gun in his car.


Yaqub's father, a local property developer, described his son as "brilliant" and denied he was a criminal, suggesting that the police executed his son.


"If it were a fight you could understand it but [it was] just bang, finished — that's what's killing me," Mr. Yaqub is reported to have said. A candlelit vigil was later held on the motorway section where Yaqub was gunned down. Meanwhile, more than a hundred people gathered chanting anti-police slogans and making accusations of murder.


​Video footage shows a group of men kicking a police car and verbally abusing riot officers who had been drafted in by the force.


Bradford MP Naz Shah posted a message on Facebook appealing for calm after the protest after being briefed by West Yorkshire Police about two more disturbances in the area.


"I recognize that tensions are running high within communities. The local police also understand the heightened tension that the events over the past 24 hours have caused within our communities and the need to provide reassurance."

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THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED