Londoners woke on Tuesday morning to find their city changed in a way they could not have imagined 24 hours before after violence, looting, muggings, and arson swept across the capital for the third night.
Monday night’s rioting was by far the most widespread and violent since Saturday, as violence spread to other cities including Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol. It is the most serious and widespread outbreak of public disorder in Britain in living memory.
Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday in Italy to return via a British military flight at 3 a.m. Tuesday, to take charge of the government’s response. A meeting of the government’s Cobra committee, an emergency committee which has met in the past after terrorist attacks or natural disasters, was called for Tuesday.
For the first time, London police deployed armoured cars to tackle rioters in the south London areas of Battersea and Clapham and west London’s Ealing early on Tuesday morning. London deputy mayor Kit Malthouse said on Tuesday morning that 6,000 police had been deployed, with some of them dispatched from police forces from neighbouring London.
He said that 450 people have so far been arrested in connection to the violence, and 44 police officers were injured. A Met Police official said Tuesday noon that the number of officers had been more than doubled, adding that so far there had been no plans for the army to get involved.
Police have asked that all football matches in London this week, which each require a significant police presence and which take place in the early evening on weekdays, to be postponed. Parents are also urged to keep children at home and off the streets, as most of the rioters appear to be teenagers or young adults.
The three days’ of riots began when a peaceful protest led by relatives of 29-year-old Mark Duggan, who was shot dead on Thursday night in a police raid in the Tottenham area of north London, turned violent. Hooded and masked youths ransacked shops, burned cars and buildings, and attacked police officers.
London Fire Brigade is reported at one point to have said it had no more fire engines left, with all out on call. One fire engine tackling a fire was reportedly attacked by rioters in the south London suburb of Brixton, and two fire engines – one in south London and one in east London — had been attacked by stone-throwing rioters as they travelled to a fire.
In Croydon, just south of London, serious rioting left behind burned cars and looted shops, and another large blaze destroyed a 150-year-old furniture business. In Liverpool, six arrests were made and two police officers injured, bring back memories of riots 30 years ago.
In Birmingham, police sealed off the main shopping district in the early evening, after following a social media campaign calling on rioters to imitate London and smash and loot shops in the city. Some city centre shops were broken into and looted, but less damage was caused than in London.
In parts of London, communities of all backgrounds joined forces to drive the looters and muggers off the streets. In the large Turkish community in north London’s Dalston, young Turks chased off would-be looters, and not far away in east London’s Whitechapel district, young Muslim men stood guard over a mosque.
A similar incident was reported in the Old Kent Road area of London, where young Muslims were out on the street to deter thieves and robbers.
Source: Xinhua
Who do you think is to blame for the rioting? Post a comment below or submit an article
