Gang warfare breaks out in London's Chinatown

A new and potentially deadly wave of gang warfare is gripping London's Chinese community after a series of attacks on restaurants and the discovery of handguns, machetes and an AK-47 assault rifle in the heart of Chinatown.

Police and community officials admit they are baffled by the upsurge in violence among street gangs, after several years of harmony and low crime rates. In the latest attack, last Friday, the front of a renowned Chinese restaurant, the Royal China in Bayswater, was smashed up.

The law-abiding community in Chinatown was shocked when, on 3 April, the first evidence of a rise in tension surfaced in a restaurant in Gerrard Street, the area's bustling main thoroughfare. Acting on a tip-off, members of Scotland Yard's Chinese Unit and firearms officers raided two restaurants and in one, Jen, found machetes, CS gas, four handguns, one machine pistol and the AK-47.

"We were very concerned because this is the first time in 20 years that firearms have been associated with crime in the Chinese community," said a police source.

Since that discovery, there have been three attacks on the Royal China and on 19 May, police were called to Newport Place in Chinatown where 15 men were involved in a fight. A 22-year-old was taken to hospital with injuries caused by a meat cleaver.

Neither staff at the Jen restaurant nor the Royal China could cast light on the cause of the trouble.

Detectives have established that the tension does not involve traditional Triad gangs but groups of men of different races whose affiliations and allegiances are "very fluid". Superintendent Sue Weatherburn, of Charing Cross police station, where the Chinese Unit is based, said: "These gangs tend to be affiliated to different parts of the South-east Asian community. Their criminal activity ... centres round credit-card fraud, gambling and money-laundering.

Supt Weatherburn ruled out protection rackets being a source of the trouble but said elements within the Chinese "Snakehead" gangs, which are notorious people-smugglers, may be involved. So far, three men have been arrested and released on police bail in connection with the second attack on the Royal China. Inquiries are continuing.