Mother’s heartbreak as riots stop her reaching body of son killed in Cardiff crash

A mother has told how she was unable to see her son’s body for hours after he and another teenage boy were killed in a crash that sparked riots in Cardiff.

Kyrees Sullivan, 15, and his friend Harvey Evans, 16, died on Monday evening. It is understood that the pair were on scooters or off-road bikes when the collision occurred.

False rumours of a police chase with the boys prompted clashes between locals and officers, with cars set alight and fireworks set off, making it difficult for ambulance crews to reach the teens and take them to hospital.

Kyrees’s mother Belinda took to social media to describe her heartbreak and frustration at not being able to reach him due to the ongoing violence.

Follow our live blog for all the latest updates. If you were caught up in the violence, email tara.cobham@independent.co.uk

She wrote on Facebook shortly after midnight on Tuesday: “My son is still laying on the floor due to this riot I’m sat at home heartbroken there are 2 familys (sic) broken right now.

“I just want to see my son and I can’t because of this riot that have happened pls I beg you all to stop and let my son be moved to hospital so I can see him we need to see our sons.”

Jenny Samson, a relative of one of the victims, said the police’s behaviour was “disgusting”.

She told Sky News: “We were all at the scene and the police wouldn’t let the mums and dads come and see their own kids lying on the floor.

“They just kept saying, ‘We’ll let you know in a minute.’ It was disgusting how they treated them.”

A disabled woman, who also lives nearby, has said she was left “trapped” after rioters torched her car.

Jane Palmer watched from inside her home on Highmead Road as her Ford Focus was set alight. Her family tried to stop the fire using water from their garden hose.

“I’m disabled, so now I’m trapped without my car,” she said. “Why are they doing this? It’s just silly now.”

Police faced what they called a “large scale disorder” after receiving reports of a collision on Snowden Road at around 6pm, with at least two cars torched as trouble involving scores of youths flared for hours.

Police said arrests have been made in connection with the disorder but did not clarify how many.

Alun Michael, the Police and Crime Commissioner in South Wales, said on Tuesday morning that the road accident, which killed the two boys, appears to have “sparked” the rioting, while he refuted rumours circulating that the pair were being chased by police. Police said the collision “had already occurred when officers arrived”.

Scenes being livestreamed on YouTube showed young people throwing fireworks and other missiles at a line of police officers with riot shields who were blocking one end of the street.

Shortly before midnight a car was set on fire and burned fiercely, while a second vehicle was overturned and set ablaze.

A member of the public was attacked due to rioters thinking they were an undercover officer, according to one of the senior officers at the scene.

A fire was burning and a helicopter could be heard hovering overhead as rioters threw missiles, including fireworks, at the attended officers.

Police, including mounted officers on horseback, were seen outside Ely police station in the early hours of Tuesday after suggestions it could be targeted.

Shortly before 3am, rioters moved down Highmead Road in Ely, followed by police who were trying to disperse them.

The rioters continued to throw missiles and set cars alight.

On Tuesday morning, the force said arrests have been made with more set to follow, adding there will be an enhanced police presence in the area this week.

Mr Michael told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My understanding is that there was a road traffic accident involving two teenagers on an off-road bike or scooter and sadly, they died. That’s an incident obviously that is being investigated in its own right.

“And that appears to have sparked, for reasons that aren’t clear, the disorder… in which something like a dozen officers were injured.

“Fortunately, none of them life-threatening, and the connection between the two is far from clear.

“So obviously there’s going to be investigations going on this morning to try and establish what happened.”

He warned against people speculating on what happened.

“It would appear that there were rumours, and those rumours became rife, of a police chase, which wasn’t the case and I think it illustrates the speed with which rumours can run around with the activity that goes on social media nowadays, and that events can get out of hand,” he said.

Condemning the violence as “totally unacceptable”, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Travis said: “These are scenes we do not expect to see in our communities, particularly a close-knit community such as Ely. We received a large number of calls from residents who were understandably frightened by the actions of this large group who were intent on causing crime and disorder.”

He said the force’s focus now is to “fully investigate the circumstances of the collision and the appalling scenes that followed”.