Police cars ablaze in London riot

Updated

British police are battling to restore order after rioters went on a rampage in north London, torching police cars, vans, a bus and buildings amid widespread looting.

Eight police officers were injured in the violence and taken to hospital. At least one has a head injury.

The unrest, which broke out in Tottenham just before sunset Saturday (local time), followed a protest over the fatal shooting of a man during an apparent exchange of gunfire with police officers.

The patrol cars and a double-decker bus were set ablaze as dozens gathered outside the police station on the High Road in Tottenham, smashing up shop windows. One establishment was also on fire.

"A number of bottles were thrown at these two cars - one was set alight and the second was pushed into the middle of the High Road. It was subsequently set alight," a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police.

"The officers were not in the vehicles and were unhurt."

There was concern the unrest was being fuelled by inflammatory posts on Twitter.

Under a hail of missiles, riot officers and mounted police battled to regain control of the streets as fire crews rushed to tackle the burning building.

The unrest occurred following a march from Broadwater Farm, a 1960s public housing estate in Tottenham.

It is understood many were protesting the shooting death of a local man.

A minicab passenger was shot dead by police in Tottenham on Thursday after an apparent exchange of fire.

The 29-year-old, named locally as Mark Duggan, a father of four, died at the scene.

An officer may have had a lucky escape in the incident - a police radio was found to have a bullet lodged in it.

Local resident David Akinsanya told the BBC he was feeling "unsafe".

"It's really bad," he said.

"It looks like it's going to get very tasty ... there seems to be a lot of anger in Tottenham tonight."

Another resident says they "saw about five youths, all faces covered up, set a wheelie bin on fire and threw it into the riot police".

"The whole of the police station is surrounded by about 100 police officers in riot gear and they threw a lit wheelie bin into it, and then started throwing bricks, street signs, anything they could get their hands on straight at them," they said.

Broadwater Farm is widely known in Britain following the 1985 killing of Police Constable Keith Blakelock, who was hacked to death during a riot there.

Tottenham is an ethnically-diverse urban area best known for its English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur.

AFP

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, united-kingdom, england

First posted