POLICE expect a repeat of last summer's riots — and are concerned about how budget cuts will affect their ability to deal with the unrest, according to a study into the disorder.

The majority of officers caught up in last August’s unrest believe similar rioting is likely, with many citing worsening social and economic conditions as the potential cause, the survey found.

One superintendent from Greater Manchester Police said he expected more disorder within the year.

When asked if rioting will happen again, he said: “I think if you have bad economic times, hot weather, some sort of an event that sets it off. . . my answer is: yes, it could.

“Because I don’t think anything has changed between now and last August, and the only thing that's different is people have thought: riots are fun.”

Police also fear their forces do not have the resources to cope with unrest on a similar scale.

A total of 130 officers from eight forces were interviewed as part of the Reading the Riots research conducted by the London School of Economics and The Guardian.

Most gave anonymous accounts of the riots which spread across London, Manchester, Salford, Birmingham and Liverpool last summer.

Police generally rejected criticism of the tactics deployed during the trouble, but admitted they were stretched to the limit by the scale and speed of rioting and left totally overwhelmed in places.

Forces across England failed to fully act on intelligence gleaned from social media networks, which were used by rioters to outmanoeuvre police, the interviews revealed.

Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, said police would struggle to cope with further disorder if the proposed austerity measures went ahead and urged the government to take “urgent stock” of the results of the study.

He said: “Officers interviewed rightly identify and voice concern that, should the same circumstances occur again, the police service would struggle to cope and contain the situation with the loss of police officers numbers we are experiencing as a direct result of the cuts — over 5,000 last year alone.”

Three people from Bolton have been convicted of taking part in the riots.