RIOTS SPREAD to new areas of London last night while looting also erupted in Birmingham as Britain’s worst unrest in decades escalated in a third night of violence.
The escalation prompted British prime minister David Cameron to cut short his Italian holiday to return to London to handle the response to the riots. Mr Cameron, who has faced media criticism for being away during the riots, was due to return from Tuscany in Italy. He will chair a meeting of a high-level crisis committee on the riots today.
In Hackney, a multi-ethnic area in east London close to the site of next year’s Olympic Games, hooded youths set fire to rubbish bins and pushed them down a street towards police, while hurling bottles and bricks. Many laughed as they ran back when police charged them. Others shouted into their cellphones telling their friends to join in.
The disturbances started late on Saturday in northern Tottenham when a peaceful protest after police shot a suspect turned violent. Yesterday the violence spread to the south of the city, including Peckham, Croydon and Lewisham.
Attackers also smashed shops and looted property in Birmingham, police said, in the first sign of the riots spreading beyond the capital.
In Hackney, with the street thick with smoke, looters smashed their way into shops, stealing whisky and beer. In Peckham, flames leapt into the air from a torched building, while rubble was strewn across the street. – (Reuters)