A restaurant owner has slammed "selfish" wedding guests who lit fireworks in supercars next to a building in Leeds with flammable cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower.
Asad Arif, co-owner of Mumtaz, called West Yorkshire Police twice yesterday (July 21) after being alerted to the "unauthorised event" taking place outside the restaurant by local residents.
Several complaints were made about the noise on Chadwick Street, Leeds Dock, along with reports of road blockages by Lamborghini and Ferrari drivers who were also lighting fireworks and flares outside the building which has flammable cladding - as can be seen on the video above.
Asad, who took over the business two years ago and is based in Peterborough, said he feels all the hard work to change the reputation of the restaurant has been "thrown in the bin" because of "selfish individuals".
He said: “We had a booking for one wedding with 30 people at 5pm and then small bookings for six or seven for different tables under different names. We just thought it was going to be a busy night.
"Everyone just turned up at 6pm.
“The second it all kicked off I got a message from local residents asking what’s going on and I’ve tried to control it from here and with management.
“I was fuming that this happened, especially when there’s Grenfell cladding on this building. On top of that, we were still trying to figure out what the hell is going on here, so I called the police.
“Apparently they turned up and just told these lot to socially distance outside the restaurant and drove off."
However, the wild scenes continued after the police left.
Asad said: "I called the cops again and they turned up again at 7.30pm.
“It had nothing to do with us, we didn’t authorise that. It would be stupid to say 'look come throw fireworks outside a Grenfell cladding building during Covid-19 season' and let everyone know you’re breaching the rules.
“We’ve worked so hard to turn the reputation of the restaurant around but that’s been thrown in the bin because some guys thought 'yeah brilliant, let’s bring Lamborghinis and Ferraris, block up the whole street throw fireworks and let’s pretend we own the world'.
"We’re going to lose business now. I’m genuinely worried.
“I’m a solicitor by trade and this restaurant takes up time from my family and personal life but that’s what business is. But this is completely unfair.”
Asad said normally even if there is a wedding at Mumtaz, no drums or fireworks would be allowed because there are local residents near to the venue.
He has also apologised to residents of Leeds Dock.
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said: “We attended a report of fireworks being let off in the street and the road being blocked.
“We established this was related to a wedding party.”
However, the force denied that they shut the event down.
