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Parents and infants take refuge as school gang rampages
CRYING infants and their terrified parents took refuge inside a Sheffield primary school as a gang of up to 50 teenagers rampaged through a suburban estate.
The youths - said by eyewitnesses to be wearing Sheffield Park Academy secondary school uniforms - stormed through the Littledale estate in Darnall after classes, damaging car windscreens and wing mirrors as they went.
When the gang arrived on playing fields next to Acres Hill Primary, headteacher Lee Garbutt had to reopen the school to provide a haven for parents and children who were about to leave for home.
Mums, dads and children cowered inside until police arrived on the scene.
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The incident was the latest in a week of allegedly racially-charged trouble which has seen two Asian teenagers injured and has resulted in a heavy police presence in the area.
On Tuesday a mob of youths was reported on Staniforth Road, Darnall, fighting and armed with baseball bats.
One eyewitness said: "I was outside the Yorkshire Bank on Staniforth Road when I saw around 40 youths, some of them armed with baseball bats all fighting. The kids from Park Academy had just come out and there were lots of police and an ambulance there.
"I kept well out of the way and stayed in a shop. But I think it's bad people can't go shopping or pick their kids up from school without it all kicking off."
Police step up patrols at troubled school
One dad who was collecting his eight-year-old son from Acres Hill Primary when the gang descended on Wednesday, said: "All the children were crying and many of the mums were really upset too - it was an intimidating and frightening situation.
"The head took us back inside school and locked the door. Soon police arrived in three riot vans and they were chasing the youths all over the playing fields - they were 14 to 16-year-olds.
"Eventually they ran off, smashing car windows as they went. We know there's been trouble up at Park between pupils, but to terrify young children is unacceptable. It just seems to be escalating."
A resident on Goore Road on the Littledale estate said her elderly parents had also been frightened by the youths - all wearing Park Academy badges and uniforms - who had vandalised her father's car as they went past.
"At least three cars were attacked and the gang were shouting slogans as they went down the road," she said. "My mum and dad are both in their 60s and they've never experienced anything like this.
"The police did come and did all they could to reassure them but at the time it was happening they felt powerless."
A spokesman for Sheffield Park Academy said: "The Academy condemns this type of behaviour and fully supports the authorities in taking suitable
action against anyone who wantonly causes malicious damage to property either on or off site."
A prominent member of the Bangladeshi community in Darnall said parents were urgently seeking solutions to the tensions and trouble.
"We have sent our own parents up to Park to carry out patrols near the academy and we have been trying to find out why this has been happening," said Mothrur Rahman Shahin, director of the Staniforth Road Neighbourhood Centre.
"We are concerned about the safety of all students and we are working hard to calm the situation down.
"We have to deal with this, we can't let things drift on. A good education is vital for our future generations."
Read previous stories on this subject and what readers think:
Riot cops at school
Parents keeps kids away from troubled school
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
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