Overview

• Essex Police deployed dozens of officers to the Bell and Park Hotels following protests and arrested 16 people over violent disorder in Epping.
• Senior officers warned of a possible summer of riots, saying they will field hundreds of officers to manage scheduled protests this weekend.
• Epping Forest District Council leader Chris Whitbread described the town as a powder keg and called on the Home Office to close the Bell Hotel.
• The Home Office denied reports that asylum seekers were being removed from the Bell Hotel and announced plans to use the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf for temporary accommodation.
• Protests have spread to Diss, where the Park Hotel has warned it will shut if forced to house single men instead of families.