FROM a distance of a quarter of a century, it hardly seems credible that it could have happened in Birmingham.

Two dead, more injured and millions of pounds-worth of damage to property, with looters pushing trolleys proclaiming they were “shopping early for Christmas”.

Yet the Handsworth riots, which sparked into life on September 9, 1985, had their roots in a minor driving infringement.

A police officer slapped a fine notice onto an illegally-parked car which pulled up outside the Acapulco Cafe, in Lozells Road, Lozells, at 4.45pm that afternoon.

On closer inspection, the officer noticed there was no tax disc.

A man arrested over the motoring offences fled into the cafe. When more officers arrived at the scene, they were pelted with stones and bottles.

Eleven were injured and the seeds of the riot were sown.

What ensued over the next 32 hours was an orgy of violence, which left two brothers dead and shops burned down.

The violence escalated throughout the evening and, at about 9pm, fire officers became aware that brothers Kassamali and Amirali Moledina had decided to stay put in their Post Office to protect their property.

It was a decision that was to cost them their lives as they died of asphyxiation in their blazing business.

And as buildings burned in Lozells Road, the looters were out raiding shops.

A police log at the time recorded: “An air of excitement is noticeable among the looters – one man pushing a trolley-load of stolen property shouts: ‘I’m shopping early for Christmas’.” Witnesses at the time told how they saw looters carrying away plundered goods, and then being mugged themselves.

Ann Conway, a voluntary worker, said: “The owners of the shop were obviously very distraught and some of the people had been customers days before.”