Police said yesterday that they had arrested 100 people in a second night of rioting in London, condemning it as “copycat” disorder following weekend unrest sparked by the death of a man in a police shooting.
As violence which rocked the multi-ethnic northern district of Tottenham on Saturday spread to other districts of the capital, doubts emerged over the original version of the shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan, with suggestions that officers were not under attack when they opened fire.
Nine police officers were injured on Sunday as youths attacked shops, cars and threw missiles at police in the southern district of Brixton, in Enfield, Walthamstow and Islington in the north, and on Oxford Street in the city center.
Photo: Reuters
Police had braced themselves for “copycat criminal activity” following rioting in Tottenham on Saturday night, after several hundred people held a peaceful protest against Duggan’s death.
Homes were torched, two police cars and a double-decker bus were set ablaze and shops looted in Tottenham in the worst such unrest in London for years, less than 12 months before the city hosts the Olympic Games.
At least nine police officers were injured overnight on Sunday, including three who were taken to hospital after being hit by a speeding car, after 26 were hurt on Saturday.
“Officers responding to sporadic disorder in a number of boroughs made more than 100 arrests throughout last night and early this morning,” Scotland Yard said yesterday, after 61 people were arrested on Saturday night.
“Officers are shocked at the outrageous level of violence directed against them,” a police spokesman said.
Police deployed extra officers in flashpoint areas on Sunday night, but there was still widespread looting, with young men seen walking out of ransacked stores laden with electrical goods.
In Brixton, which like Tottenham has a long history of tensions with the police, hundreds of people raided an electrical superstore, a Foot Locker sports goods store was set alight, and several shops had their front windows smashed.
Surveying the damage yesterday morning, Marilyn Moseley, a 49-year-old sales advisor, condemned the Brixton riots, which had followed a free local street party.
“I heard the helicopters out last night after the street party. It was inevitable something would happen after people were out drinking all day. Anger isn’t the word — it’s pointless,” she said.
Shops were also looted in Enfield, a north London suburb 5km from Tottenham, and there were reports of two vehicles being set on fire.
Unrest also erupted in Walthamstow, north London, where more than 30 youths, many in masks, vandalized shops. About 50 youths also gathered in Oxford Circus, in the world-renowned Oxford Street shopping area, causing some damage before police intervened.
The Tottenham riots erupted after a march in protest against Duggan’s death on Thursday. He was shot in an apparent exchange of gunfire with police as he traveled in a taxi after officers had stopped the car during an operation against gun crime among the black community.
Newspaper reports yesterday suggested that tests conducted on a bullet found lodged in a police officer’s radio after Thursday’s shooting came from a police weapon. Police are investigating the death.
Police have said the killing of Duggan, a father of four children, was “absolutely regrettable” and the Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation.
However, the shooting caused huge anger in Tottenham, one of the capital’s most deprived areas.
Tottenham has a history of tensions with police, and was the scene of the brutal murder of police constable Keith Blakelock, who was hacked to death on the Broadwater Farm estate during rioting in 1985.
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman condemned Saturday night’s violence as “utterly unacceptable,” and yesterday British Home Secretary Theresa May warned that those responsible would be punished.
“Those responsible for the violence and looting will be made to face the consequences of their actions,” May said.
“Londoners have made clear that there are no excuses for violence and I call on all members of local communities to work constructively with the police to help them bring these criminals to justice.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was