Latest updates say 26 police officers have been injured and 43 people arrested as violent riots flared up in north London. Two patrol cars, a building and a double-decker bus were torched as rioters clashed with officers on Saturday in front of the Tottenham Police Station, where people had gathered to demand "justice" for the death of a man identified locally as Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four, killed in an apparent gunfight. More than 300 were involved in what began as a march to demand justice for the killing.
Violence escalated across London and at least three other cities Tuesday as police fought thousands of rioters and looters and Prime Minister David Cameron headed back to Britain to face the crisis.
In unprecedented scenes of rioting in the capital, buildings were in flames in Croydon, Peckham and Lewisham in the city’s south, while gangs of looters roamed the streets of Hackney in the east, Clapham in the south, Camden in the north and Ealing in the west.
Scotland Yard said it had deployed an extra 1,700 officers to deal with the London unrest, the worst in years. Armoured cars were used to quell the rioters.
Hundreds of riot police poured into Hackney to try to contain the violence in a district just a few miles (kilometres) from where the 2012 Olympics will take place in a year’s time.
As darkness fell, police wielding batons pushed the youths back, while local residents hoping to return to their homes were kept behind police cordons.
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