IT was a warm August evening in the centre of Birmingham.

While shoppers and office workers were busy buying last-minute goodies and heading to get the bus or train home, hundreds of masked teenagers were gathering outside The Pallasades shopping centre, about to unleash terrifying levels of vandalism and destruction that would leave people around the world appalled.

Within hours, the thugs had wreaked havoc across the city centre, smashing windows of businesses, including House of Fraser in Corporation Street, Jamie’s Italian restaurant in the Bullring and Marks & Spencer on the High Street.

JD Sports, Primark, Footlocker and Orange all suffered at the hands of looters, losing millions of pounds worth of stock between them.

And everyone’s worst fears were realised when, the following night, the city centre was once again gripped by shocking scenes of violence, as hundreds of thugs hurled bricks through windows, set cars alight and charged at riot police.

The riots lasted just two days, but it is estimated they have cost the local economy at least £7million

Whilst it was the police batons which helped to keep thugs and thieves at bay, the real spirit of Birmingham showed through when defiant citizens showed up in the city centre following the riots, brandishing brooms determined to clean up their town.

And it’s this group who became known as the Birmingham Riots Cleanup Group, who are now among the Birmingham Mail’s Local Heroes.

Dr Miles Weaver, aged 29, the man behind the clean-up, said he thought everyone who helped out was a real hero.