London riots: the third night – live coverage - The Guardian (blog)

6.58pm: The Guardian's Duncan Clark reports from Hackney:

The police have cleared Mare Street but have told me the rioters have broken into groups.

One group appears to have gone down Morning Lane which is currently protected by three police lines plus horses.

I got through to the second line where the sergeant said there is continued rioting further down but can't get closer. The other main trouble is "up at the top", which I think means top of Mare Street.

6.51pm: The news channels are showing pictures of fires having broken out in Lewisham. It appears a car and a row of bins, all along the same street, have been set ablaze. The footage shows police officers dragging large wheely bins which are not on fire away from the others, as officers with shields and Nato helmets form a line behind them. From the helicopter footage there is no sign of any people in the immediate area.

6.45pm: Dave Hill, the Guardian's London blogger, is in Hackney, east London, where skirmishes have been occurring this afternoon.

A local police officer said shops in Hackney began closing their shutters after hearing "rumours" of trouble initially emanating from BlackBerry Messenger exchanges. Most had locked up by early afternoon as support officers began arriving in increasing numbers in the vicinity of Hackney Central railway station and three masked youths riding bicycles appeared on the main shopping thoroughfare of Mare Street.

A series of stand-offs with members of the public began shortly after a large group of police detained two men against the wall of Hackney's Old Town Hall building, now a betting shop, and a crowd gathered to watch, many of them photographing the events. After some brief skirmishes and an angry verbal tirade against a police cluster by a young woman in the graveyard to the rear of the betting shop, an officer shouted to a colleague to "get the Natos," a reference to riot helmets.

Police vehicles and officers in helmets holding riot shields eventually blocked off access to Mare Street south of its pedestrianized Narrow Way section and the railway bridge, as buses backed up along adjoining Amhurst Road and a helicopter buzzed overhead.

Reactions of onlookers varied from a man telling an officer moving a youth on to "get your hands off him, pig," to an afterschool club worker declaring to police that "these kids shouldn't be out here, they should be back in their yard," and saying that if she was in charge of dealing with rioters she'd "tear gas their asses".

6.41pm: PenGuy has used Blottr to post photos from Lewisham. The images show groups of youths, and police, on the streets. In one a chair appears to have been thrown across the road.

On Twitter @gillianhawke has posted an image from Lewisham showing a police line blocking a road. The line appears to be preventing a bus from passing. Officers are not wearing riot gear, suggesting the disturbances may be low level at the moment.

6.36pm: Matt Wells writes that there are developments in a number of areas around London at the moment. Two Guardian reporters have been in touch with news of a large disturbance in Peckham, south-east London. Police are blocking the main street in the area. Adam Vaughan says there are about 50 young men, some in ski masks and balaclavas on Rye Lane.

James Walsh is hearing reports of shops shutting down across the city, including those around the Angel, Islington, in north London as well as Stoke Newington, to the north-east, Wood Green – scene of looting on Sunday morning– and Lewisham, in the south-east of the city.

In Islington, branches of Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and the Co-operative have all closed their doors.

On Stoke Newington High Street, the Sainsbury's store has pulled its shutters down, as have some of the smaller shops and corner shops. "There's a really odd, gloomy feeling – everyone is just standing around talking about when it will kick off here", James says.

The Victoria line has been suspended between Stockwell and Brixton "due to civil unrest", according to this picture.

6.30pm: Good evening. After two nights of violence and looting following protests at the death of Mark Duggan on Saturday, police and residents are again bracing themselves for disruption.

• There have been skirmishes in Hackney, east London this afternoon, with police in riot gear confronting groups of youths. There have been skirmishes on Mare Street, with television pictures of youths using sticks to try and break windows of buses and shops. Our reporter Mark Brown says the disturbances had begun to fizzle out at around 6pm, although there remain sporadic outbreaks of stone-throwing.

• Trouble spread to many parts of London last night as disturbances continued across the capital. There was violence in Enfield, Walthamstow and Brixton, with instances of looting and vandalism. The acting Metropolitan police commissioner Tim Godwin pledged a robust response to what he described as "pure criminality" seen in recent days. The Met said Twitter users could face arrest for inciting violence.

• The home secretary, Theresa May, has condemned the "sheer criminality" of the riots. She said at least 215 people have been arrested, with 27 people charged. May, who returned from holiday today, praised the bravery of the police, saying: "The violence we've seen, the looting we've seen, the thuggery we've seen - this is sheer criminality, and let's make no bones about it."

• In Tottenham, scene of the violent clashes and blazes on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, a vigil is taking place tonight in honour of Mark Duggan. The 29-year-old father of four was shot dead by police on Thursday. Doubts have since emerged over whether Duggan was killed in an exchange of fire.

• The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has rejected claims that the government has failed to provide leadership. Many senior ministers were away from London as the rioting began. David Cameron remains on holiday in Italy. "I reject completely this notion that somehow this Government hasn't been functioning very effectively," said Clegg. He added that he had spoken to Cameron by phone this morning.

• The Independent Police Complaints Commission issued a statement which appeared to criticise the Metropolitan police.The IPCC is carrying out the investigation into the death of Mark Duggan. Rachel Cerfontyne, the commissioner overseeing the investigation, said the Duggan family's concerns were about "lack of contact from the police in delivering news of his death to Mark's parents".

We'll have the latest news from our reporters around the capital throughout the evening.