Tensions rise as hundreds protest again outside Essex migrants' hotel

Hundreds of people have staged a fresh demonstration outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Essex that has become a flashpoint of anti-immigration protest.

- Ben Quinn

It comes days after two security guards were seriously assaulted during a previous gathering.

Local people from Epping, including women and children, were among those who gathered outside the hotel yesterday, but they were also joined by protesters with loudspeakers and banners as riot police took up positions.

Police later moved in as a small counter-demonstration by Stand Up to Racism was hemmed in by groups of men, some of whom were masked, and pelted with plastic bottles.

Police had warned that criminal violence would not be tolerated, amid tensions in the town, where the far right have been trying to exploit opposition to the housing of asylum seekers in the hotel.

Assaults on two security staff by a group of men at a protest near the hotel on Sunday are being treated by investigators as racially aggravated.