- guardian.co.uk, Monday May 28 2001 17.09 BST
Seventeen people were arrested and 15 police were injured in the several hours of pitched battles which began after a white youth and an Asian youth got into a fight near a local chip shop.
Bricks, stones and petrol bombs were hurled, five cars and a police van were set on fire and Kwik Save supermarket trolleys were hijacked as barriers and weapons.
The violence - some of the worst rioting seen in Britain for years - began at 8pm on Saturday.
Calm was only finally restored to the streets with the arrival of rain and daylight.
Last night there were fears of further trouble. A mob of up to 40 people were involved in a brawl outside a town centre pub. Windows were smashed with bricks and drinkers trapped inside the Jolly Carter had to be freed by police.
Later, police reported "sporadic fighting and stone throwing" in various parts of the town.
The street violence in the mainly Pakistani Glodwick district follows allegations made last month that parts of Oldham were now no-go areas for whites.
Yesterday the events in Oldham sparked a political row with the Liberal Democrats appearing to link the trouble to recent comments by the Tory leader William Hague.
Simon Hughes, the party's home affairs spokesman, claimed Mr Hague's tough talk on asylum had made local problems worse.
"We must be very careful with our language and that's why some of us have been very critical of some of the language particularly William Hague and his colleagues have used over the last two years," he told GMTV's Sunday programme.
Ann Widdecombe, the shadow home secretary, said Mr Hughes's comments were "disgraceful" and accused him of trying to make political capital out of the disturbances.
Jack Straw, the home secretary, was also dismissive of Mr Hughes's remarks. "I think it is impossible to argue, incredible to argue, that what happened in Oldham can be laid at the door of William Hague," he told ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme.
Forensic teams moved into Glodwick yesterday as Oldham council workers cleared up the devastation and police and residents began reflecting on the trouble.
"I'm absolutely shocked and saddened by what has taken place," said Chief Superintendent Eric Hewitt. "It has set community relations back by an enormous amount. There have been quite unprecedented scenes of violence, the like of which we have never seen in Oldham or Greater Manchester. No one could have been prepared for the sheer ferocity of what took place."
Khurshid Ahmed, secretary of the Pakistani Cultural Association, said he was "gutted" by the events of the night. "We have had some very ugly scenes. We now have to calm things down.
"I condemn this and it must stop. Police are trying to do their job but may have overreacted a bit.
"If this problem is not solved, we are going to have a very scary situation and someone is going to get very badly hurt."
Ashid Ali, leader of the Bangladeshi Youth Association, added: "The Asian community has been under control but it is very difficult to control a crowd when there is so much outrage and distress. We don't want a repeat of yesterday in Oldham ever again."
Council and community leaders blamed an increased National Front presence in the run-up to the election despite a Home Office ban on planned marches. NF members were said to have been seen drink ing outside pubs in the town at the weekend.
The trouble flared after Asian youths took to the streets to demand the release of four local men arrested after the chip shop fight.
The Live and Let Live pub was attacked twice, with both white and Asian drinkers terrorised as they prepared to listen to a singing duo. "They came in kicking and punching," said Paul Barrow, the landlord. "The first of them got through the door and attacked customers with anything they could get their hands on - bottles, stools, glasses."
He said the youths left as quickly as they had arrived but came back two hours later to find the doors locked with the customers still inside. They hurled a petrol bomb through a window, setting curtains on fire, and attacked laminated glass windows with bricks.
