Lord Ouseley said there was evidence of racism

Lord Herman Ouseley, former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, said police were wrong to claim racial tensions did not play a part in the unrest on Wrexham's Caia Park.

The violence which began late last Sunday with a clash between Iraqi Kurdish refugees and local people continued on Monday night when a mob of around 200 attacked police with missiles and petrol bombs.

North Wales Police said racial tension played a part in the initial outburst but the second clash was prompted by "criminality, pure and simple".

But Lord Ouseley, who produced a report on the 2001 race riots in Bradford, told BBC Radio Four's Today programme that racism was an ongoing problem across the whole region.

Much of the violence centred on a pub on the Caia Park estate

"There may not appear to be a history that is obvious, but I think in north Wales, if you ask anyone from the minority communities, there has been a pattern of low-level racism, harassment, name-calling.

"There is evidence to show that exists. Even though it is not something that has been overtly in the public eye, it has been there.

"It would be wrong for people to be in denial to suggest that race isn't a factor, that there isn't prejudice, that there weren't hostilities or indeed hatred.

"While it always takes a small incident it then brings to the surface the prejudices that exist, particularly as we have seen the way asylum seekers and refugees have been demonised. And that becomes a factor.

"Where you have got the combination of communities who have grievances as was just expressed of poor housing, long-term association with criminals, anti-social drug activity in an area of deprivation, then some of the resentment can spill over in to hostilities to newcomers."

Arrests

He said local authorities should make sure people realised that new arrivals in their area did not enjoy preferential treatment.

Calm was restored on Caia Park on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, but there has been an increased police presence there since the trouble flared up.

Police have arrested 47 people in connection with the disturbances and 30 people have been charged.