In a TV report broadcast yesterday on X, the BBC reveals its exclusive investigation to find the neo-Nazi activist and his Telegram group behind last summer’s Southport riots, which were highly violent towards the town’s Muslim and foreign communities.

Charles-Emmanuel Mikko Rasanen is Finnish, 20 years old and became the admin of a Telegram group called “Southport wake up”, gathering almost 14,000 members where he fueled hatred of the city’s foreign communities and sent precise locations of places to attack. Even more seriously, he sent a PDF document entitled “Tactics and safety measures when setting up an arson attack”, a document written by Russian fascists and explaining how to avoid the police while targeting Muslims and Jews.

The BBC says Finnish police have been notified, but no concrete action has yet been taken against Rasanen. The Telegram group is still open.

See also: How did a simple rumor trigger riots in the UK? Analysis with John Holmwood, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Nottingham – interview with the Collectif contre l’islamophobie en Europe (CCIE).