lunes, 8 de agosto de 2011

London riots: Violence spreads to all corners of capital - Telegraph.co.uk

In Enfield, which saw the worst trouble last night, police were forced to call in dozens of extra police with dogs and officers on horseback as reinforcements.

Police said they had extra resources out across London following the troubles in Tottenham on Saturday night.

Several arrests were made after major stores, including Tesco, Starbucks and Comet, were looted, according to Scotland Yard.

Local shopkeepers, who reported seeing groups of masked gangs smashing windows brandishing weapons, closed early, fearing a repeat of Saturday's violence.

Ben MacDonald, who lives in Tottenham, said as he dropped a friend in Enfield earlier yesterday he saw that the HMV and T Mobile shops had been vandalised by a group of teenagers.

He said: "A police car turned up trying to deter them, but instead they turned on the police car, jumped on the roof and absolutely trashed it."

Nick de Bois, Conservative MP for Enfield North, said the disorder was encouraged on social media websites and had become a "self-fulfilling prophesy": "There seems to have been a very well organised campaign over social media to try to engineer trouble here in Enfield." he said.

"There seems to have been a very well organised campaign over social media to try to engineer trouble here in Enfield. It has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy," he told LBC radio.

"There is no element of injustice that they are here for. They are here quite simply to cause trouble, to hurt local businesses and shops. This is nothing more than illegal criminal behaviour and I just hope that if the police conclude their investigation, that they do make arrests and those that are guilty receive a serious punishment from the courts."

Leader of Enfield Council, Doug Taylor said he believed disturbances there last night were linked to events in Tottenham.

He said: "There's got to be a link to that extent that it's the day after and the police are hugely well organised in Tottenham so maybe this was seen as the place to have a second night."

Mr Taylor added: "Police have managed to clear the shopping area, but there have been youths causing random acts of criminal damage.

"We don't know where they're from. They appear to have arrived both by public transport and in cars, and they were very organised.

"There's simply no place for this sort of action. It's got nothing to do with the shooting in Tottenham, we're a different borough."

Meanwhile, there was no reported violence in Tottenham, which saw the high street up in flames on Saturday.

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