{"id":618026,"date":"2026-06-03T01:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618026\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T01:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:14:08","slug":"riot-police-clash-with-protesters-close-to-where-henry-nowak-was-stabbed-to-death-in-southampton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618026\/","title":{"rendered":"Riot police clash with protesters close to where Henry Nowak was stabbed to death in Southampton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Play Brightcove video<\/p>\n

ITV News Correspondent Neil Connery reports live from the scene<\/p>\n

Police holding riot shields have clashed with protesters close to where Henry Nowak was stabbed to death.<\/p>\n

Dozens of police, along with the police helicopter, riot vans and other emergency services are currently dealing with a large protest in the Portswood area.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people are still in attendance, having started their demonstration in the centre of Southampton earlier. <\/p>\n

Tommy Robinson has also been in attendance at the protests, which began shortly before 6pm.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people outside Southampton police station Credit: ITV Meridian<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, the crowds have pushed back. Southampton’s local paper, the Daily Echo, has also reported that protesters are setting commercial bins on fire and rolling them towards officers. <\/p>\n

Throughout the evening, demonstrators could be heard chanting \u201cHenry, Henry\u201d, as the line of police were pelted with bricks. <\/p>\n

Chairs, cans and flares were also thrown at police in riot gear, eventually forcing officers and three police vans back from the line they had been holding in another area in Portswood. <\/p>\n

Local community groups are appealing for calm said they have recieved reports of harassment towards Sikhs and Muslims. <\/p>\n

One told ITV Meridian: “There have been isolated reports from the community of minor incidents of harassment towards Sikhs and Muslims because of the sad incident involving Henry Nowak. <\/p>\n

“His family have stressed the importance of community cohesion and calm. <\/p>\n

“Please remain vigilant and if you experience, hear or see any raciist behaviour it is important to report it.”<\/p>\n

Hampshire Police has been contacted for comment on the situation. <\/p>\n

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter<\/a> for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. <\/p>\n

Tensions have been rising since police bodycam footage was released on Monday night, showing an officer handcuffing Mr. Nowak as he lay dying from stab wounds.<\/p>\n

The footage was made public after Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed for life<\/a> for murdering the 18-year-old University of Southampton student with a Sikh ceremonial knife.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside court after the verdict on Monday, Mr Nowak’s father Mark had said that his family wanted to use Henry’s story “to make change for the better” rather than as fuel for conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to help make our streets safer for everyone,” he said.<\/p>\n

That plea was reiterated by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood<\/a> on Tuesday after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage issued a statement about the case.<\/p>\n

She reacted to Tuesday night’s protest with a post on X, calling the scenes “unacceptable” and saying: “There can be no justification for hijacking this tragedy to stir up.”<\/p>\n

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know\u2026<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play Brightcove video ITV News Correspondent Neil Connery reports live from the scene Police holding riot shields have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-618026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}