Pizzas galore!

The weekend of violence was triggered by rumours that a 14-year-old Jamaican girl was gang-raped by up to 19 Asian men after shoplifting from a cosmetics shop. Details of the attack were broadcast on a pirate radio station and picked up by a black community website.

Police are taking the reports seriously, but remain concerned that so far nobody has come forward to claim that she was the victim.

A public meeting was held at a local church on Saturday night which attracted hundreds of Afro-Caribbean women, two police officers and local politicians. It was gatecrashed by a mob of up to 100 hooded youths, who - when barred from entering - turned their anger on police.

The youths, many wearing bandanas over their faces, scattered through the surrounding streets throwing bricks, bottles and rocks. Cars were burned and shops owned by Pakistanis were looted. The windows of Lozells mosque were smashed.

Thirty-five people were admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds and broken bones. A police officer who was shot in the leg with a ball-bearing gun. Nine remain in hospital today, one with a fractured skull.

At a news conference at West Midlands Police headquarters today, Detective Superintendent Dave Mirfield said that Isiah - a fitness fanatic - was brutally assaulted after a group of men emerged from three cars.

He said: "Those cars contained, we believe, between 10 and 11 men. These men got out of the cars, armed with knives, and attacked Isiah and his friends."

Violence resumed last night with sporadic outbreaks of fighting in the Newtown area of the city, despite a heavy police presence. A gang of up to 100 Asian youths marched down Lozells Road, flanked by riot police, in a display that one protester said was an act to "reclaim our streets".

Some youths smashed the front window of a terraced house but after 90 minutes, the crowd dispersed.

It was several hours after this operation that the second man was killed, after armed police were called following reports of a man brandishing a firearm in Melbourne Avenue, about a mile from the Lozells Road, the main thoroughfare of Saturday's violence.

"It would appear that at some point while police were searching the area, an 18-year-old suffered a gunshot wound and was taken to hospital where he has since died," said a spokeswoman. "Two men have been arrested in connection with this."

Police said the shooting had taken place close enough to the troubled Lozells neighbourhood for them to consider a connection.

"It is too early to say whether this incident is directly connected to the bigger picture. Given its proximity to the other events, we cannot rule it out," said a spokeswoman.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been brought in to launch an investigation. Although it is not believed that police officers were directly involved, there was a high presence of armed officers in the area and an under such circumstances an inquiry is routine.

This morning, a tense calm returned to the streets. Police officers patrolled the rain-lashed precincts, still littered with broken bricks: wooden boards were nailed up over broken windows.

Police remain keen to trace the young girl whose alleged rape proved a catalyst for the weekend's violence.

"As it stands, that victim has not come forward," said Supt Tom Coughlan at a news conference yesterday.

"We are desperate to talk to that person. We have treated this very seriously from the outset. I do not know whether this event has taken place. There is a lot of rumour, myth and speculation. There is nothing to support that particular allegation at the moment."

A large bunch of flowers ad been propped up against a set of red gates where Isiah was stabbed. A message attached to the flowers read: "Rest in peace on the right hand side of God. Missing you already."

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