More violence rocked parts of of London Sunday night, a day after demonstrators looted shops and set fire to cars and buildings.

This time, the crowds in the Enfield area were met with a strong police reaction, according to initial reports on social media.

Paul Lewis, a journalist for The Guardian, posted observations of erupting violence in the London borough of Enfield Twitter at around 8:45 p.m local time.





Police reacted in less than a minute to jewellery store being ransacked. Bystanders and press were struck with batons. #Enfield Paul Lewis

PaulLewis



The events started Saturday night as hundreds of rioters and looters set buildings on fire, launched fireworks at police and ran unchallenged through the streets with armfuls of stolen goods.

The riots began as a peaceful protest against the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old man and father of four, who was killed Thursday in Tottenham by officers from the Trident unit of the Metropolitan Police, which investigates gun crime, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, an external government body which regulates the police.

Police said that 55 arrests had been made by Sunday evening, 51 in connection with the previous night’s riots and 4 due to events that day.

On Sunday afternoon, Adrian Hanstock, the police commander, said in a statement that 26 police officers were injured, and two remained in the hospital.

There was no indication that the protest would deteriorate into the levels of criminal and violent disorder that we saw. We believe that certain elements, who were not involved with the vigil, took the opportunity to commit disorder and physically attack police officers, verbally abuse fire brigade personnel and destroy vehicles and buildings. We do not believe that this is something that the vast majority of law abiding citizens in Tottenham would condone or would want. As the disorder developed, we immediately deployed, but such was the level of violence against police officers that we were also supported by officers from surrounding forces, as is in line with our planned contingency as would be expected for such a significant incident. Our officers were subjected to bottles, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown at them. Our priority will always be to try to preserve life, with the numbers of people on the street and violence being directed at the police and fire service this had to remain our priority. We are aware that a number of shops were looted and this is very regrettable. We are very aware of how disruptive and costly this will be for large and small businesses and the negative impact on the local community.

News reports suggested that about 300 people had gathered outside the local police station by early Saturday evening.

Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

But by 10:20 p.m. local time, the protest had turned violent. Two empty police cars were burned and officers were “subject to bottles and other missiles being thrown at them by the crowd,” according to a statement released by the police.



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By 3 a.m., it appeared that parts of the riot zone had spiraled out of police control. An enormous fire raged in a blocklong building, with no sign of police or fire department intervention, even while residents raced to drive their cars away as the building’s windows exploded and glass rained down on them. Fires raged in alleys, unabated.

TwitPic

As the sun rose over north London Sunday morning, several buildings in the Tottenham area were still on fire. The blackened wrecks of a double-decker bus and several cars smoldered, and the streets were littered with smashed glass and stolen goods.

Mr. Duggan’s brother, Shaun Hall, told Sky News he did not condone the riots, and asked that the rioters “Please try to hold it down. Don’t make this a bearing on my brother’s life. My brother was a good man.”

In nearby Wood Green, looters still browsed – one man could be seen examining vitamin supplements at a health food store – and the sidewalk was littered with discarded items.

On Sunday, videos were posted on the site Storyful.com showing a ransacked optical shop and looted pharmacy.

The riot escalated into a pitched battle between lines of riot police officers, some on horses, and hundreds of mostly young black men, in small gangs of four or five, many with hooded sweatshirts pulled over their heads and bandannas over their faces. The young men arrived in clumps, on foot, by bicycle or on mopeds. Tottenham is an area of mostly poor minorities; a significant portion of the population is black. “How many black people have to die around here?” asked one of the youths, referring to Mr. Duggan. He gave his name as Pablo. “I hate the police,” he said.

Storyful, the social network-based journalism site, has created a map of where it says the rioting is taking place. It also has pictures and videos of the scene.

Though lines of police on horses, and with dogs, charged the main street outside the police station to push rioters back, there were significant pockets of violence which they could not reach.

In a warren of side streets, thick smoke filled the air, and the sounds of police helicopters merged with breaking glass, small explosions from blazes in several buildings and the sounds of groups attacking houses and trash cans in search of missiles to throw at police. Some wielded glass bottles and baseball bats, another a table leg, and one man swung an aluminum crutch.

On the Twitter account of Simon Newton, described as a freelance journalist for Sky News, a picture of what is reported to be a van belonging to the BBC was posted last night. The van was allegedly attacked by rioters.

Residents of one street drove their cars away from a block-long blaze in panic. Michael John, 27, a construction worker, explained that the youths were just angry. “They want justice,” he said. The parents of Mr. Duggan, he added “deserve some peace of mind.”

Throughout the night, Ravi Somaiya, reporting for The New York Times, captured the events on his Twitter feed.

On Sunday afternoon he posted photos of the aftermath.

Ravi Somaiya

Simultaneously, a scene of astounding anarchy unfolded at a shopping center several miles away in Wood Green, but was not detected by news media, nor, it seemed, the authorities, until several hours later. Clothing and hangers littered the street as young looters smashed the doors and ransacked nearly every shop, carrying off bagfuls of goods from stores like H&M, The Body Shop and GNC, with the ease of strolling shoppers. Police were nowhere in sight as 30 to 40 young men and women laid waste to the mall.

Maria Robinson, a resident, described the unfolding chaos in an unsettling audio interview on The BBC’s Web site.

“The police are hiding. I actually saw a group of police officers run through an alley away from a group of people that are running towards them,” Ms. Robinson says on the clip. “The police seem very frightened of the situation at the moment.”

The riots bore echoes of clashes between police and Tottenham residents in 1985, following the death of a woman, Cynthia Jarrett, whose heart failed after police raided her home. A police officer, Keith Blakelock, was stabbed to death, and dozens were injured, during those riots in the Broadwater housing estate.

It was not immediately clear whether this weekend’s riots were at an end, or merely at a lull. “Our absolute aim,” said Stephen Watson, the police commander in charge of the operation, in a statement “is to restore normality.”