Britain's streets remain quiet tonight after prime minister David Cameron said "more robust" policing was proving successful.
Hundreds more were arrested last night following further street violence in the north and midlands of England.
Some 1,335 people have now been arrested across Britain since the trouble erupted on Saturday in Tottenham, north London. Police are circulating CCTV coverage of suspected rioters in the hope of arresting hundreds more.
Speaking this morning, Mr Cameron said there was evidence that a “more robust approach to policing in London” had resulted in a much quieter night across the capital.
“We needed a fightback, and a fightback is under way,” he said, adding contingency plans were in place for water cannon to be available to quell rioting at 24 hours’ notice.
Mr Cameron said police forces will be able to deploy plastic bullets to deal with rioters. He declared the police would have legal authority to use any tactics they need to employ. “Every contingency is being looked at. Nothing is off the table.”
Despite being overwhelmed by rioters at times, the police said they did not support vigilantism.
"What I don't need is these so-called vigilantes who appear to have been drinking too much and taking policing resources away from what they should have been doing, which was preventing the looting," the Metropolitan Police's deputy assistant commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said.
However, London police advised business owners that they could use "reasonable force" to protect themselves.
"As a general rule, the more extreme the circumstances and the fear felt, the more force you can lawfully use in self-defence," a police message said.
Asked about call from London mayor Boris Johnson today for plans to cut police numbers to be reconsidered, Mr Cameron said: “Mayors and local authorities always want more money. It is the government’s job to give them what they need.”
London was largely quiet last night, with some 16,000 police - 10,000 more than on Monday - sent onto the streets in a show of force in districts where gangs of hooded youths had looted shops and burned cars and buildings on the previous three nights. Police said 81 people were arrested in the city last night.
The violence has spread to cities outside the capital.
Up to 1,000 people attacked the police in the Manchester suburb of Salford and across greater Manchester, 115 arrests were made.
An 18-year-old man was arrested today on suspicion of arson after Miss Selfridges on Market Street in Manchester was set alight.
In Nottingham, 80 arrests were made after the Canning Circus police station in the centre of the city was firebombed.
Police in Birmingham made over
100 arrests
in the city overnight. They have opened a murder inquiry after three men were knocked down in the Winson Green area shortly after 1am. Two men were pronounced dead at the scene of the hit-and-run
incident, which may be linked to the looting, as up to 80 bystanders were present. A third man died from his injuries in hospital.
A friend of the men told BBC radio they had been part of a group of Asians protecting their area from looters after attending Ramadan prayers at a mosque.
Police are facing the loss of more than 30,000 jobs by 2015, taking the workforce back to its 2003 level, as the government embarks on the deepest spending cuts since the second World War to tackle the budget deficit. A third of the cuts to police numbers have already taken place.
The terms of reference for an inquiry into the cause of the rioting will be decided by a House of Commons committee tomorrow.
Mr Cameron
indicated the scope of the inquiry will go further to examine the kind of value systems that exist in many deprived parts of Britain. “It is all too clear that we have a big problems with gangs in our country. For too long there has been a lack of focus on the complete lack of respect shown by this group of thugs,” he said.
The original source of the rioting was the shooting dead by police of father of four Mark Duggan (29) last Thursday. He was killed by armed officers at Ferry Lane, Tottenham, north London, after they stopped the minicab he was in to carry out an arrest as part of a planned operation.
A statement issued by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating his death, said ballistic test results indicated no evidence that Mr Duggan opened fire at police officers before he was shot dead.
The looting showed the world an ugly side of London less than a year before it hosts the 2012 Olympic Games, an event officials hope will serve as a showcase for the city. A visit by an International Olympic Committee went ahead yesterday "as planned" and the London organisers of the games said the violence would not hurt preparations for the Olympics.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin has advised travellers to avoid areas where civil unrest is occurring. It said Irish citizens living in any affected areas should be vigilant, monitor local media for information and follow the advice of local authorities.
Additional reporting: Reuters, Guardian service