POLICE have been pelted with missiles close to where student Henry Nowak was stabbed to death.
Officer holding riot shields have clashed with protesters close to where 18-year-old student Nowak was murdered in Southampton in December last year.
A police helicopter hovered overhead as officers were pelted with stones on a residential street in the St Denys area of Southampton before they charged with perspex shields in an attempt to push the crowd back.
Demonstrators chanted “Henry, Henry” as the line of police were pelted with bricks and forced to retreated again.
The clash comes following a protest outside Southampton Central Police station. A large group walked across town to the area of St Denys, close to where the murder took place.
Chairs, cans and flares were thrown at police in riot gear, eventually forcing officers and three police vans back from the line they had been holding.
Vickrum Digwa, who was jailed for life on Monday for stabbing Nowak with a 21cm blade, had told police at the scene he had been the victim of a racist attack.
Nowak's dad said outside court on Monday that he did not want Henry's murder "to be used to create further hatred, division or tension".
But Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said in a video statement on Tuesday the treatment of Nowak was evidence of a “two-tier culture".
He added: "Henry’s family have responded to this in just the most extraordinarily dignified way.
“But I suggest the rest of us respond to this with pure cold rage."
He said there needed to be an end to “anti-white prejudice” and a recognition that “white lives matter just as much as black lives”. In a social media post ahead of the statement he said "white lives matter too".
Farage has been condemned for the language he has used with people on social media saying he is "stoking hate".
Far-right agitator Tommy Robinson joined the protest, telling the crowd "this is about race".
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said: “I heard someone say this wasn’t about race, this is about race.
“Because he (Mr Nowak) was white he was handcuffed.
“Even after they found out he (Digwa) had stabbed him five times, they still didn’t handcuff him.
“A white boy who done nothing was handcuffed, a murderer in possession of a knife who stabbed someone five times isn’t.”
