He Fled to the U.K. for Safety. Then an Anti-Immigrant Mob Attacked.

The mob was growing, encircling the hotel near the northern English town of Rotherham where asylum seekers were living.

Abdulmoiz, an asylum seeker in his 20s from Sudan, said he watched from an upstairs window with other men trapped inside. All they could do was pray and wait, he said, as the men outside began attacking the building, throwing objects, breaking windows and chanting, “Get them out.” Some of the attackers tried to set fire to the building.

“People were in a panic,” said Abdulmoiz, who asked to be identified only by his first name to avoid jeopardizing his asylum claim, and who spoke just days after the attack through an interpreter. “If the people outside didn’t kill us,” he feared, “the smoke would.”

The police eventually managed to push back the Rotherham rioters, but the residents, including Abdulmoiz, were still terrified. He has since moved to another hotel, in Birmingham, but he said the fear has barely abated.