Battle to restore calm after riots

Police chiefs and political leaders were struggling to restore calm to England’s streets today after riots spread across the country.

Prime Minister David Cameron ended his holiday and flew back to Britain to chair a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee amid fears there will be a fourth night of violence.

The Football Association announced that England’s friendly against Holland at Wembley Stadium tomorrow had been called off.

Hundreds of people were arrested overnight after the worst rioting in decades as looting, violence and arson spread across London and to other major cities including Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol.

Three people were held on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer who was injured by a car while trying to stop looters in Brent, north-west London.

Mr Cameron cut short his family holiday to Tuscany and arrived back in Number 10 in the early hours.

He met Home Secretary Theresa May and acting Scotland Yard Commissioner Tim Godwin before chairing the Cobra meeting at 9am.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) was stretched to the limits, with the arrests leaving all police cells in London full and Mr Godwin calling for every special constable to report for duty today.

Some 6,000 police officers tried to maintain order in the capital last night, and Scotland Yard said a total of 13,000 officers would be on duty over the next 24 hours.

The Met described the riots as the worst it had seen “in current memory” for “unacceptable levels of widespread looting, fires and disorder”.

A total of 44 officers were injured, a man in his 60s suffered life-threatening head injuries, and Scotland Yard received over 20,000 999 calls, four times more than usual.

Police in London used armoured vehicles known as ``Jankels'' to push back rioters in Ealing, west London, and Clapham Junction, south London, and warned that they would use the tactic again if needed.

Scotland Yard said it would hunt down looters and arsonists and had a dedicated team who worked through the night to identify those responsible for the violence from CCTV footage.

Yobs also took to the streets of Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool through the night in copycat attacks.

West Midlands Police arrested more than 100 people in Birmingham after youths went on the rampage in the city centre’s retail area near the Bullring shopping mall.

Cars were set alight in Liverpool, and police officers were pelted with makeshift weapons including golf clubs as they tried to contain the gangs.

Bristol residents were urged to avoid the city centre by Avon and Somerset Police after 150 rioters hit the streets.

Nottinghamshire Police said officers dealt with a number of sporadic disturbances in the St Anne’s area of Nottingham overnight, arresting a boy of 16 and a 20-year-old.

In Kent, five people were arrested by police following trouble in the Medway area. The force said fires had been set across Chatham, Rainham and Gillingham overnight.

But London bore the brunt of the violence, with 2,500 extra officers deployed to all corners of the capital as well as the 3,500 officers normally on duty.

The “opportunistic” attacks saw major fires set in Hackney, east London, and Peckham, south London.

A furniture shop in Croydon, south London, in a 100-year-old building, which had been in the same family for five generations, was destroyed after being torched.

A 26-year-old man was found in a car in Croydon with a gunshot wound. He is in hospital in a serious condition.

A large blaze at a Sony distribution centre near Enfield, north London, also sent plumes of thick smoke across the sky.

The violence spread to leafy suburbs including East Dulwich and Clapham, where looters preyed on shops and caused widespread disruption.

Mrs May said: “I think this is about sheer criminality. That is what we have seen on the streets. The violence we’ve seen, the looting we’ve seen, the thuggery we’ve seen – this is sheer criminality, and let’s make no bones about it.”

London Ambulance Service said it took 22 people to hospital from the main areas of the disturbances, although others were treated at the scene or made their own way to accident and emergency departments.

Some rioters threw missiles at ambulances or threatened medics as they tried to care for the injured.

London Fire Brigade said it experienced its busiest night in recent history, tackling fires across the capital including huge blazes in Enfield, Croydon and Clapham Junction.

It answered 2,169 999 calls between 6pm last night and just after 7am this morning, around 15 times the number it would get on an average day.

The violence began in Tottenham, north London, on Saturday, after a peaceful protest over the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, on Thursday.

An inquest into Mr Duggan’s death is due to open this morning at High Barnet Coroner’s Court.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it was awaiting “further forensic analysis” to gain a comprehensive account of the shots which led to his death.

The Guardian quoted a source as saying that initial tests suggested a bullet found lodged in a police radio after Mr Duggan’s death was police issue.

The riots have already led to a series of domestic football matches being called off, including Carling Cup ties at West Ham, Charlton, Crystal Palace and Bristol City.

But the move to cancel an England international is unprecedented in recent times.

Bert van Oostveen, chief executive of the Dutch football federation the KNVB, told Voetbal International: “The police in London could not guarantee the safety of our players and our supporters.”

Residents to the south east of a business park which was ablaze in Enfield should stay indoors with windows and doors shut, Scotland Yard said.

The fire, at an electrical goods distribution centre in Solar Way, started shortly before midnight last night and has now been put out. Firefighters remain at the scene to damp down the site.

“However a plume of smoke is still travelling south east from the site of the fire and while there is nothing to suggest the fumes contain harmful substances, as a precaution police are asking residents to stay indoors,” Scotland Yard said.

“Police and London Fire Brigade are liaising to investigate the cause of the fire, which is being treated as suspicious at this stage.”