Four members of a rampaging mob of youths who attacked property and threatened fire crews during rioting in Birmingham have been jailed.

The series of racially motivated violent incidents in October 2005, sparked off by a false rumour, only came to an end when one of the group accidentally shot and killed another member of the gang.

Dowaine Maye, 21, of Melbourne Avenue, Newtown and Nijah Miller, 22, of Salstar Close, Aston, who were both found guilty of a charge of violent disorder by a jury at the city’s crown court, were sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Joshua Watson, 21, of Seals Lane, Kings Norton and Lewis Lynch, 21, of Lount Walk, Newtown, were each jailed for two years after admitting the same charge.

A 16-year-old, who also pleaded guilty to violent disorder and cannot be identified, was sentenced to a 12-month supervision order .

The court heard that Maye is currently serving an eight-year jail sentence after previously admitting the manslaughter of Aaron James, the victim of the shooting.

Judge Elizabeth Fisher, who ruled that his three-year sentence run concurrently, said: "Everybody knows that over the course of that weekend in October 2005 there was a substantial amount of civil disorder in the Lozells and Newtown area."

She said this had caused alarm and distress to the residents and the part the defendants had played involved damaging cars, a particular shop and attacking fire crews.

The sentence on Miller was passed in his absence after he absconded during his trial.

Michael Burrows, prosecuting, said rioting had broken out following a rumour, which had never been substantiated, that a young girl had been gang raped by up to 25 Asian men in a shop in Perry Barr.

He said this had pitched the black Afro-Caribbean community against the Asian community and there were serious incidents of violence, one involving a fatal stabbing.

Mr Burrows said after 10pm on October 23 the defendants had gone out together and with others and had armed themselves with weapons including a gun as well as knives, machetes and sticks.

They damaged cars, targeting those owned by Asian people, attacked a house and threw missiles at a supermarket.

Mr Burrows said there was another incident in which members of a fire crew, who had been called out to a report of a car being petrol bombed, were threatened, one of the mob producing a gun.

Paul Farrer, for Maye, said he felt genuine and profound remorse over the killing and that he had suffered psychological problems.