The historic market town of Thetford in Norfolk was hit by a night of disorder after angry crowds stormed three houses rumoured to be housing asylum seekers. The unrest followed weeks of protests over a nearby former military barracks that has been earmarked to accommodate 1,250 male migrants, with tensions in the town boiling over into direct confrontation and vandalism.

Police were forced to escort five men from a property on St Johns Way as a hostile crowd looked on, with officers branded "traitors" by protesters. The occupant of a house in nearby Elm Road is understood to have been forced from his home and had his phone stolen, while a property in Bracken Road had its windows and front door smashed. Up to 100 people were reported to have been involved in the disorder as it spread across the town.