This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Ten people were charged with public order and other offences today over clashes with police after the English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism held protests in Leicester yesterday.

Leicestershire police mounted its biggest operation in 25 years to try to keep the peace between the two violently opposed groups, and made 17 arrests during the day. More than 2,000 officers from 13 different forces were involved in policing approximately 1,000 EDL supporters and 700 people from the UAF.

At the EDL's static demonstration in Leicester's Humberstone Gate East, police wearing riot gear worked with dog handlers to control the crowd, which threw bricks and coins.

Supporters had arrived by the coachload since the early morning and were allowed to gather in four police-monitored pubs ahead of the protests in Hotel Street. Many wore EDL-branded hooded tops and some chanted "EDL, EDL''. Others carried banners bearing slogans such as "Sharia laws will destroy Britain and all our British values".

The home secretary, Theresa May, had authorised a blanket ban on marches in the city earlier in the week, but the groups were permitted to hold static demonstrations from 2pm to 3.30pm.

Violence was largely kept at bay, but at one stage a policeman was put into an ambulance on a stretcher; he is believed to have left hospital after treatment.

Police said six people were held for public order offences, and others on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, possessing an offensive weapon and possessing a controlled substance.

Nine of those charged were released on bail and will appear in court on 19 November. A 37-year-old man of no fixed abode, arrested for possession of a controlled substance and possession of an offensive weapon, was remanded into custody to appear in court tomorrow.

A 44-year-old man from Leicester arrested on suspicion of actual bodily harm remained in custody today.

In today's Observer, Jon Cruddas, the Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham, warned that the EDL were a bigger threat than the BNP, bringing together a "dangerous cocktail of football hooligans, far-right activists and pub racists" in towns and cities across the UK.

He wrote: "It also poses the biggest danger to community cohesion in Britain today. Its provocative marches, 'flash demos' and pickets are designed to whip up divisions between communities and provoke a violent reaction from young British Muslims."