Revealed: "Beirut" in A&E during Lozells race riots

Jan 3 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

“There were two cars dumped outside with bulletholes in the windscreens, 50 men were on the verge of rioting outside and two different gangs inside A&E.

“We have to rely on ambulance control to understand that there are two different gangs involved in the injured sometimes and send each of them to different hospitals, but we ended up with both sides in the same A&E during the riots.

“We had to find a way of keeping them apart while they were going through the same hospital stream. The staff were terrified.

“Most firearm incidents come to us at City Hospital and anything involving a gunshot, stab or machete wound means we have to lockdown the department and have at least six armed police officers turn up as a routine.

“That is because the gangs may still be after the victim. Police can be at the hospital with the patient for normally three days but sometimes even three weeks.

“We have an excellent team of security staff at City Hospital who are like a quasi police force without the powers. They look like police officers and that’s intentional. They even wear stab proof vests.”

Mr Finch said that from May next year, he was overseeing changes to the lockdown, when the A&E is restricted to people coming in.

For more than four hours, mobs attacked innocent passers-by and fought running battles with police during the riots, which claimed the lives of 23-year-old IT worker Isaiah Young-Sam and Aaron James, 18.