Mirror reporter Lucy Thornton has told of her heartbreak at witnessing rioters target the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham and set it alight

It is a saddening sign of the times to see scared hotel guests peeking out of broken windows – as broken as Britain.

Below them are rioters, throwing everything they can get their hands on, bottles, bikes, bollards and wooden posts. They have been chanting “Yorkshire, Yorkshire” at the 100-strong line of police officers holding them back.

They had earlier rammed several big blazing bins up against a fire exit at the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham. Police had to use their own small extinguishers to control but it raged for a terrifying half an hour untouched as guests looked on from above.

A generator, patches of grass outside and several bins full of cardboard were set alight. Balaclava and masked men at one stage lay flat on the road to stop a fire engine – which they’d just chased away – returning.

As I move away and take a look at the damage caused to the hotel, two men appear at a window above and as I show my Mirror ID to them they make a heart with their hands.

Beneath them are upturned melted plastic bins, a charred fence panel and wood piled against the fire exit. In the distance those protesting chant for “Tommy Robinson”. Nearby an Enoch Powell poster had been abandoned.

Holiday Inn in Rotherham after protests ( Image:Daily Mirror)

As I return to the riot front line, I show the police officer my ID and he tells me: ‘”We need more numbers.” It’s the second riot I’ve attended in a week after witnessing the disorder in Southport and both times police have told me how they are struggling to keep control.

But locals watching the drama unfold are sympathetic to those rioting. They told me of their anger about the hotel guests – mainly men – who “came on the boats” and who’ve been housed in the middle of a residential estate. They claimed women were scared to walk around the local lake.