Riots, looting and fires in London

Some 16,000 police officers are to be deployed to protect London from further unrest. According to police sources, rubber bullets may also be used. They have apparently never before been used by the British police. The wave of violence is clearly spreading to other cities outside London.

Scotland Yard has since announced that Mark Duggan, the 29-year-old shot dead by police, had apparently not fired at officers before his death. This news seems only to be adding fuel to the fire of violence. No bullets from Duggan’s gun were found at the scene.

The riots began on Saturday evening in the Tottenham district, and the wave of violence has since swept on a frightening scale into other districts in the north, south and east of London. According to Scotland Yard, those involved in the violence are so-called copycat offenders.

More than 100 suspects have been arrested, and nine police officers have been injured. An 11-year-old child is reportedly among the perpetrators. The violence escalated from a demonstration over the as-yet-unexplained death of a 29-year-old man. He had been shot dead by police a few days earlier in the Tottenham district.

The demonstration by friends and relatives of the man who was shot had initially been peaceful, but ended in rioting, looting of shops, and fires in homes and cars. Some houses have burned down to their foundations. In the Brixton district in south London, 200 youths vandalised the shopping street in the centre.

London residents are organising themselves and forming groups to protect homes and shops in their neighbourhoods. In north London, in the Enfield district, 200 of them were on duty, helping the police and maintaining law and order. The large turnout of police officers and residents deterred the young rioters. As a result, London experienced a relatively quiet night, one that seemed almost eerie, while the wave of violence appeared to be raging in Manchester and other cities. Looting and subsequent arson attacks were also reported in Birmingham, Liverpool, Leicester, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Salford.