'I can't believe that's us in that picture': Revealed, the young lovers who decided to make love, not war during hockey riots in Vancouver
- Couple 'totally stunned' after their image went around the world
- Man was comforting girlfriend after they were run over by police
- New video shows moments before iconic embrace
- Good Samaritan attacked by dozens of fans in sickening riots
- Young girl begged mob of hundreds not to trash her car
- Residents write apologetic graffiti proclaiming 'we love Vancouver'
- Cost to city's reputation could run into billions of dollars
By JOHN STEVENS
Last updated at 12:23 AM on 18th June 2011
It is an iconic image that has gone around the world.
Amid the carnage that descended on Vancouver after the city’s hockey team lost the Stanley Cup final, one couple embraced in a romantic clinch.
The young lovers were identified today as Canadian Alexandra Thomas and her Australian boyfriend Scott Jones.
In their first interview, the couple said they are ‘totally stunned’ by how their intimate embrace has been seen across the globe.
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Street scene: A couple lie together in the street while Vancouver explodes around them following the local ice hockey team's defeat in the Stanley Cup final by Boston
Embrace: The pair kiss against a backdrop of violence in Vancouver after the Bruins beat the city's team 4-0 to wrap up the play-off series 4-3
‘When I first saw it, I thought, “No way, that’s not… I can’t believe that’s us”,’ said Miss Thomas.
‘Then I looked some more and realised, that is us. That’s a very revealing picture of us.’
Miss Thomas and her boyfriend had been watching the game at a downtown bar when the rioting broke out and they became surrounded police.
As violence broke out around them, the couple were photographed as they tenderly kissed amongst the chaos.
‘I was trying to understand what was going on. The photo was definitely not something we expected to happen,’ Miss Thomas told the Toronto Star.
Mr Jones said that he kissed his girlfriend as he tried to calm her after they were run over by riot police.
‘The riot police ran on top of us,’ said Mr Jones. ‘They ran us over.
'Totally stunned': Scott Jones and Alex Thomas are said to be shocked their new found fame
‘We were knocked over, and I was just trying to calm her down, because as I'm sure you can imagine, she was somewhat distraught,’ he told ABC News.
As the couple spoke for the first time, new video emerged of the moments before the infamous kiss.
The footage, shot from a rooftop, shows police in riot gear next to the couple before they embrace.
The couple met shortly after Mr Jones, 29, arrived in Canada six months ago. He has been working as a bar tender, while he tries to make it as a stand-up comedian.
Miss Thomas is a recent graduate from the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Mr Jones’ father Brett today said that the couple were ‘totally overwhelmed’ by all the coverage they had received.
'They are both just totally stunned by it, actually,' he said.
Embrace: New video shows the couple kissing from the roof of a building
Dispute: The video shows police officers in riot gear standing next to the couple. It is not clear what is happening
Chaotic: Scott Jones claimed that he was trying to calm his girlfriend after police 'ran on top' of them
Scott's mother saw the photo on the internet, but did not realise it was her son until her daughter pointed him out.
'She just said, "Mom, you do realize that is Scott." And I said, "Oh, I better go back and have another look at it." And sure enough, that was my boy,’ Megan Jones said.
‘I just thought, yep, that would be Scott because he’s a bit of a dreamer and he wouldn’t have even known there was a riot going on around him, quite possibly,’ she told the Globe and Mail.
The global interest in the photo has overwhelmed the couple according to Scott’s mother.
‘He sort of said, “Oh, sweet, they’ve got a photo”,’ Mrs Jones said. ‘But now that it’s become bigger than Ben-Hur, well, I don’t quite know what he’s going to make of it.’
Scott Jones has been in Canada on a 12-month work visa. The young lovers had been due to start a travelling around California next week, but are now heading to New York for television interviews.
They are planning to move to Melbourne, Australia, later in the summer.
Tender touch: It is now believed the boyfriend had gone to the girl's aid after she was struck during the riot
‘Scott only told me a month or so ago that when he was due to come home in a few months that he was bringing home the best souvenir from Canada ever – he was going to bring home Alex. So that’s pretty exciting,’ Mrs Jones said.
‘And he said if we all behave, we might get to meet her. It looks like it’s not us that’s doing the misbehaving, though.’
Vancouver photographer Rich Lam took the photo during the riots on Wednesday.
He said he is 'very surprised' the picture has received so much attention because he did not even realise the couple was kissing until hours later.
'The riot police made a charge, so we were running. I looked back and there were two people lying on the street. At first I thought she was hurt,' he told the Toronto Star.
'I didn’t know what I had until I came back and gave [the photo] to my editors. That was just a brief moment in all the mayhem.'
Taken down: The man loses his baseball cap amid the punches as he starts to fall to the floor
Bloodied: Help arrives as the injured man, his head cut, is sprawled on the floor after being attacked by a mob
Meanwhile one man who tried to stop rioters from looting was kicked senseless amid the scenes of chaos on Wednesday night.
After one youth hit a window with a thin metal pole the man grabbed it, went after the youth and was suddenly submerged in the crowd.
He was pulled to the ground and kicked and punched before two men came to his aid as he lay there with his head bleeding.
The sickening incident happened before darkness as the city went into lockdown.
As the mayhem that followed the Canucks team's defeat to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup final, a large crowd gathered to smash in all the windows of a department store.
A man, dressed in a black top and baseball cap, grew increasingly frustrated trying to stop the mob.
Two hours later disturbing images show the increasingly aggressive crowd wrecking a young woman's BMW parked in the centre of the city as she desperately tried to stop them.
Helpless against the mob: A woman in a white Vancouver t-shirt tries to defend her BMW with her friend (black top)
The two young girls stood up to baying crowds and pleaded with them not to attack their car.
Along with her diminutive female friend, the woman - wearing a white Vancouver T-shirt - was powerless as the mob stomped all over her car, smashing windows and kicking in the doors.
Police closed bridges into the city as tear gas was fired to quell mobs burning cars and looting.
Today thousands of residents paid tribute to the brave good Samaritans who stood up to the crazed mob.
But amid the chaos were a handful of brave individuals who dared to resist the onslaught and demand that the mob relent.
Leave it alone: She rushes to get a thug off the roof of her car
A losing battle: She manages to wrestle a vandal in a white hoodie to the ground
However, hundreds of people who were on the scene took photos and videos of the carnage, and uploaded them to social media sites aimed at gathering evidence for investigators.
Legal experts now believe that the number of people who are charged for taking part in the violence could grow.
Among the videos uploaded online is that of a man who is said to have stood up to an alleged troublemaker who tried to set fire to a car.
The man, dressed in black shorts, stands in front of an upturned car with his arms open and pleads for the mob to stop.
Damaged: With the sun out but the memories of the violence still present, people walk past a car rental shop that was targeted by the mob
Caution: A bush shelter that was smashed is taped up but all around it the debris from the riots has been cleared away
Another group of people try to push over a large van but the same man desperately hold it up until the crowd has dispersed.
He later confronts one of the alleged troublemakers and chases him across the street, urging him to go away. A scuffle then breaks out among the crowd.
This morning, as thousands of shocked residents woke up to the aftermath of the carnage, they took to the streets to voice their hurt at the previous nights activities.
Apologetic graffiti was daubed around the city. On a shop window that had been boarded up with wood, one resident scribbled: 'Fan's didn't do this'.
Damage: Fans overturn a car in the centre of the city as hundreds look on
Despite being consumed in flames this car's lights continue to shine amid the chaos
Mob rule took over in the centre of Vancouver following the match with widespread reports of looting
Elsewhere, another person has scrawled 'Real fans don't riot' while another added 'We love Vancouver'.
Somebody else sprayed: 'On behalf of my team and city, I'm sorry'. Elsewhere, a felt-tip doodle of a cartoon said: 'Flip pancakes, not cars'.
Just hours after the relentless tribal-like violence, the city began the clean-up operation to remove debris from the streets.
Experts predict the cost of damage could be millions of dollars but the the city's tarnished reputation could cost billions to repair.
More than 100 people were arrested but most of those were detained for breaching the peace or public intoxication, and were released within 24 hours.
A city in regret: Messages of apologies went up around the city on Thursday
'We will recover': A man writes a message of forgiveness on a boarded-up store on Thursday
Just eight remained in custody on more serious charges such as break and enter, theft, mischief and assault with a weapon.
'In the next several weeks I would think we'll see that list of 100 people multiplied to several hundred,' legal analyst Steven Skurka told CTV's Canada AM on Friday.
Niamh Scallan, who witnessed the destruction, said that thousands of people were helping with the clean-up.
Graffiti from shocked Vancouver residents says that 'real fans don't riot' and that 'hooligans are not real fans'
Emotional: One of the heartfelt messages apologises to the city for the damage that has been caused
A lesson in good behavior: A cartoon tells people to 'flip pancakes, not cars'
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the city's true representatives are the citizens who volunteered their time to help clean up.
Robertson also said a full investigation would be launched to ensure that the incidents are never repeated.
She said that the initiative seemed to take root among residents who were angry at the way their city was being portrayed.
She added: 'It kind of restored my faith in the city to be honest. ...It does make me feel like our community is back on the mend.'
Volunteers swept broken glass and collected garbage while helping to remove burned-out cars and replace smashed windows.
Describing Wednesday's violence, Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said: 'It's terrible. This city and province has a lot to be proud of, the team we have and the guys we have in here. It's too bad.'
Amanda Harwood, a British woman living in the city, said: 'It's awful. There are vehicles on fire, overturned buses, smashed shop windows, fires in the shops, looting, stabbings, injuries from glass on the street, police are using tear gas.
'Bridges are closed and they have stopped anyone going to the downtown area.'
Vancouver police constable Jana McGuinness said: 'It's just a huge disappointment for everyone to see this.'
This morning a Facebook group was set up called 'Post Riot Clean up - Let's help Vancouver that said: 'Once the embarrassing rioting has ended in... Vancouver let's all show the world what Vancouver is really about by helping rebuild and clean up so it is better than it was before.
'If any city can bounce back from an embarrassment like this it is Vancouver!'
Vancouver police constable Jana McGuinness said: 'It's just a huge disappointment for everyone to see this.'
'If any city can bounce back from an embarrassment like this it is Vancouver!'
Vancouver police constable Jana McGuinness said: 'It's just a huge disappointment for everyone to see this.'
Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia, told The Globe and Mail: 'If you were a part of this, and I'm speaking to people who may have been responsible last night, I promise you this.
'You won't be able to live in anonymity, you won't be behind your bandana or under your hoodie.
'We are going to do everything we can to make sure the public understands who you were. Your family, your friends, your employer will know you were a part of it.
'Because this cannot happen in our city. It isn't the kind of city that I want to live in.'
Wai Young, the conservative MP for Vancouver South, made a reference to the riots in Parliament during a question period yesterday.
Using her Twitter page, she said: 'The violence is an embarrassment and absolute disgrace to our city.'
WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004874/Vancouver-riot-Couple-pictured-kissing-totally-stunned.html#ixzz1PZvaQ0EO
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