Thousands of anti-racism protesters rallied in towns and cities across the country on Saturday.

People took to the streets in cities including Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and London.

It follows a week of violent disorder, including attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers and the looting of shops, which was fuelled by a false rumour that the Southport triple murder suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.

Police have so far arrested 779 people in connection with rioting, with 349 of those charged, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has delayed his family summer holiday to continue to focus on the government’s response to the riots.

In Cardiff, Birmingham, Norwich, Penzance, Southampton, Shrewsbury, Carlisle, Hastings, Cambridge and Devon, hundreds of anti-racism protesters gathered on Saturday.

In Belfast, several thousand people took part in a rally that started at Writer’s Square. Some protesters waved signs that read ‘Ulster says no to racism’.

The organisers, United Against Racism, said the event was intended to be a “peaceful response to racist violence of recent days”.

“These are our streets, and we will not concede them to the racist forces who want to divide us,” said the campaign group’s chair, Fiona Doran.

In London, about 5,000 people marched on Whitehall in support of refugees. The march started at the headquarters of political party Reform UK, whose leader Nigel Farage has advocated a “freeze” on immigration.

Hundreds of anti-racism protesters gathered in Newcastle, while a small number of anti-immigrant protesters amassed in the nearby Bigg Market area.

Police said they made 14 arrests, including for possession of an offensive weapon, possession of a Class B drug and failure to comply with some of the orders in place. None of the arrests were for disorder or violent offences.

Anti-racism protesters also gathered across Scotland, with demonstrations taking place in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Dumfries.

The NPCC said specialist officers have been tasked with pursuing suspected online offenders in relation to the disorder, as well as so-called influencers, who they say are responsible for “spreading hate and inciting violence on a large scale”.

Across the country, teams are investigating “hundreds of leads”, it said.

The hundreds of arrests and charges for rioters in less than two weeks have been followed by swift sentencing, with jail terms of up to three years.

Cases include a 16-year-old who admitted stealing £15,000 of vapes, assaulting an emergency worker and smashing a police car in Liverpool last weekend.

In Greater Manchester, eight people were due in court after being charged with violent disorder on Friday. One was also charged with robbery. The defendants ranged in age from 13 to 46.

In Hull, six people appeared at court on Saturday in connection to disorder. Three were 13-year-old boys and one a 17-year-old girl.

Seven people were also charged on Friday and Saturday after a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Aldershot on 31 July.

The violence had largely calmed by Wednesday 7 August, when thousands of protesters chanting “refugees are welcome” took to the streets.

Sir Keir Starmer said he believed an increased police presence and fast-moving cases have had an impact, but his message was to stay on “high alert” to “make sure our communities are safe and secure and feel safe and secure”.

The prime minister has delayed his family summer holiday to focus on the government’s response to the riots, and he is expected to work from Downing Street and Chequers for all of next week.

Police were braced for more possible unrest over the weekend given planned protests.

A dispersal order starting at 16:00 on Saturday was put in place in Liverpool following “incidents of disorder”. The order allows police to direct people suspected of or involved in criminal activity to leave an area for 48 hours and arrest them if they return.

Police had already put in place a Section 60 order, which gives officers greater powers to stop and search individuals to prevent violence, from 11:00 to 23:00.

“Both orders are extra tools at our disposal to help keep the public safe, and highly visible police patrols will enforce them in the next 48 hours,” neighbourhood policing inspector Chris Taylor said.

Families are still mourning in Southport, where Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

On Saturday, Bebe’s parents released a statement that described her as “full of joy, light and love”.

They praised her older sister who witnessed the attack for showing “such incredible strength and courage” since that day.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, an 18-year-old born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, has been charged with the three girls’ murders and also the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults.