Jay Patel was running a busy dinner service at his vegetarian restaurant, Shiv Sagar, on Leicester’s famous Golden Mile, on Saturday night. The dining room was packed with about 80 customers – couples, families, even a local councillor – when suddenly, huge crowds of young men marched past.
It’s estimated there were hundreds of men out that night. Most were masked and dressed head-to-toe in black – and some appeared to be armed. It was terrifying, Mr Patel tells me.
“People were running on this side, on that side, banging on the door… we closed all the lights and all the curtains,” he says. “It was very scary.”
