By Max Clarke
Violence erupted across the capital for a third night last night, as gangs set buildings ablaze in an orgy or looting.
What begun in Tottenham on Saturday night as a peaceful protest concerning the shooting, by London’s Metropolitan Police, of 29 year-old father of four, Mark Duggan, the contagion of violence spread night by night across the capital.
Last night (Monday), reports of disturbances ranged from Ealing in the West, via Camden and Clapham to Hackney, Peckham and Croydon. Unrest had also spread beyond the Capital to Bristol, Birmingham and Liverpool, where 300 youths grappled with police.
Police have again faced criticism for seeming to allow the violence to unfold around them, with reports of near anarchic conditions in Clapham unfolding for up to two hours before police intervened. Numbers of belligerents were so many, and so dispersed that the police responded with a new tactic; charging mobs of looters with lines of armoured cars. So effective was the tactic that it is being considered for widespread deployment.
Meanwhile, fires raged across the besieged capital with a number and an intensity unseen since the blitz. Lines of terraced properties burned in Croydon, whilst a warehouse was razed to the ground in Enfield. Cars, buses and police vehicles were targeted by the mindless crowds across the country.
This morning, police and authorities are appealing to the public to restore order. The #riotscleanup hashtag has appeared on twitter, urging fed up Londoners to hit the streets with bin bags.
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