'Rioters smashed up our homes and we're petrified about what will happen next'

As anarchy continues on UK streets those who have had their homes smashed up by rioters have spoken out.

Middlesbrough is the latest town to be ripped up by mindless thugs who have set cars alight, chanted racist slurs and mindlessly damaged people’s properties.

Four residents of a road ravaged by the vandals have now told Express.co.uk how scared they were as the carnage broke out in the centre of the Teesside town.

Many of the windows of houses on streets in the town centre have been smashed in with hammers as well as cars being vandalised and curtains being ripped out of front rooms to be set on fire.

An army vet, 58, originally from nearby Thornaby, who wanted to remain anonymous, has lived in the town centre area of Middlesbrough for two and a half years.

He said: “I heard glass breaking and I thought ‘that sounds like a car windows’.”

But rather than yet more cars being smashed up outside, the former soldier, who served in Northern Ireland, found that a traffic cone had been thrown through his front room window.

He said: “The thing that gets me is that all these marches are supposed to be against foreign nationals - but I’m not a foreign national.”

The man - who is currently unemployed due to health problems - then points over to a row of brand new homes, where many windows have also been put through.

“And in those new build houses, there’s no one living in them. Why have they smashed them?

“And there are kids down there,” he says, pointing to a neighbouring house.

He added: “Being ex-army I’m fine and the landlord is coming to board the window up but it has made me angry. I have fought for this country.

“How is this going to help the kids who have been murdered?”

His neighbour is another man who wants to remain anonymous. He is 47 and has lived in the area for 20 years and is currently unemployed.

He said: “I was busy painting at the time and I thought ‘there goes another car’ and ‘I’m going to check my window’.

“I thought ‘you b*****s - what have you done?!

“I feel shaken and worried about what’s going to happen next. I’m panicking.”

Emeka Uzowulu, 42, is an international student from Nigeria studying international relations at Teesside University. He also had his living room window smashed.

He has three children aged, 11, eight and four as well as a wife, 34, who arrived to live with him in May. He originally came to the UK in September last year.

He said: “I’m in shock.

“I never expected that people could take such action. I am still trying to understand it. The wanton destruction of property.

“My wife saw a car burning and when I got home we sat in the living room, a car smashed and I was just about to try and peep out when I heard another smash and saw blood.”

The yobs had smashed the family’s window and Emeka started calling the police. The thugs also ripped the curtain out of their front living room to set it on fire.

“They are very scared,” he said of his family, “and I think my daughter is in shock”.

Health care professional Rupa Barua, 32, also lives in the street with her husband Remu and two-year-old daughter. The family, originally from Bangladesh, also had their front window and car window smashed.

She said: “I’m very scared. We have a very little baby and have been hiding upstairs.”

The family has lived in the house for two years.

She added: “People have been very friendly and I can’t believe it’s happened.”