It wasn’t until 11.45pm that police finally regained some sort of order with the help of residents.
Local Rastafarian Nigel Heath appealed for calm and walked up and down the streets pleading through a loud hailer for people to “cool it” and return to their homes.
But the following day trouble was still brewing, with the first reports of children looting on their way to school at 8am.
The anarchy had moved on to Handsworth, where a mob of 500 gathered in Heathfield Road. Many were decked out in crash helmets and masks and carrying bin liners to stash stolen goods.
They rampaged through Birchfield Road shopping centre and the Post Office in Rookery Road was raided.
Douglas Hurd, home secretary at the time, was pelted with missiles and abuse when he arrived at the riot scene. The police struggled to contain the rioters until later that night but the damage was done as both Handsworth and Lozells burned.
Five reasons for rioting
AN inquiry was set up to decide the cause of the rioting, which mirrored unrest which erupted in July 1981.
Four years earlier, Handsworth had suffered similar violence, but on a much smaller scale.
The motives were said to be related to racial tension and inner-city deprivation, a distrust of the police and authority.
But in 1985 a variety of organisations were blamed, including the Church of England, with one minister saying “white-led churches had hardly learned to care properly for their black members from the first generation of immigrants”.
Eventually ex-West Midlands Police chief constable Geoffrey Dear, now Lord Dear, told how the root causes were down to five factors: massive social deprivation, inadequate housing, unsuccessful education, mass unemployment and racial discrimination.
Figures showed unemployment in the area was running at 36 per cent, three times the national average, and the worst in inner-city Birmingham.
It was also claimed that drug dealers feared for their livelihood after police carried out raids in the area. It was this that initially orchestrated the disorder, Lord Dear said.
Figures released afterwards showed more than 420 people were arrested in connection with the riots, including two in connection with the tragedy of the Moledina brothers, although no-one was ever convicted of direct involvement in their deaths.
