Gangs of Asian and white youths attacked each other with stones this week, it has been claimed. The stand off, involving 40 to 50 youths, broke out on Monday evening.

Eyewitness Neville Steed runs The Orchard off-licence, in Fell Lane, which was yards from the fracas. He says the youths also had baseball bats and used mobile phones to call for reinforcements.

"One lad got beaten over the head with some stones by a crowd of young Asian lads," he said.

But Mr Steed believes the incident was not racially motivated and puts it down to "bad behaviour."

A police spokesman said: "At about 8.30pm, officers were called to a report of two groups of youths throwing stones at each other in the Fell Lane area. When police arrived the youths had dispersed. No injuries or instances of damage as a result of the incident have been reported to the police. Patrols will be stepped up in the area to prevent any further incidents. The POPs (Problem-Orientated Police teams) will be examining the long term problems connected with the Fell Lane and Lund Park areas and will be working with other agencies to establish the root cause of the problems."