Good morning. After a third day and night of rioting and looting, disturbances spread from the centre of London to the outer fringes of the city and to other cities, with similar scenes repeated in Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool and Bristol. Welcome to our latest live blog.
Here's a summary of the Monday's events:
• Rioting spread throughout London from Monday afternoon onwards and into the early hours of Tuesday morning. Police struggled to cope with multiple outbreaks of looting as well as sustained violence in several places, most notably on an estate in Hackney.
• Sustained looting, violence and attacks on property stretched from Ealing in the west, Enfield in the north, Hackney in the east, and as far south as Croydon. Shops and businesses were looted while scores of cars and buses were set alight. Huge fires were started in Enfield, where a Sony distribution centre on an industrial estate was destroyed, and in Croydon where a large furniture showroom and nearby homes were engulfed, with fires continuing around London Road.
• David Cameron cut short his holiday in Italy and arrived back in the country in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Cameron plans to chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee. London mayor Boris Johnson also plans to return to the city later in the day.
• Trouble has spread to other cities in the UK, including Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool. In Bristol, police reported 150 rioters moving through the city centre. In Nottingham, police had to deal with a crowd of 100. Merseyside police faced burning cars and criminal damage in south Liverpool, while there was repeated looting in the centre of Birmingham and violence elsewhere in the city, with an empty police station being set on fire.
• The Metropolitan police in London reported that 334 people have now been arrested, while 69 people have been charged and two cautioned. In Birmingham, police said around 100 people have been arrested.
Around the country, West Midlands Police arrested about 100 people in Birmingham after youths went on the rampage in the city centre's retail area, near the Bull Ring shopping mall. Cars were set alight in Liverpool, and police officers were pelted with makeshift weapons including golf clubs as they tried to contain the gangs. Merseyside police have advised people in the Toxteth area to stay indoors.
In Bristol, police dealt with around 150 rioters and residents were urged to avoid the city centre. Nottinghamshire Police said officers dealt with a number of sporadic disturbances in the St Anne's area of Nottingham overnight. The local police station was attacked, up to 40 private vehicles were damaged, windows of houses were smashed and a container of 200 tyres was set alight, according the force.
In Kent, five people were arrested by police following trouble in the Medway area. The force said fires had been set across Chatham, Rainham and Gillingham overnight.
As we have been reporting, despite a police focus on Twitter, the real organisation has taken place on the closed BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) network. But while it has been the BlackBerry riots, it may be the Twitter cleanup, where the #riotcleanup hashtag is trending.
The story today will be about the reaction and the response. The home secretary, Theresa May, has been on ITV's Daybreak programme. She said that those responsible for the riots would be brought to justice. She said:
There is no excuse for these levels of criminality and it needs to be dealt with. These people need to see that there are consequences for their actions. We need robust policing but we also need to ensure that justice is done through the courts and this will begin today.
Mrs May said there had so far been "strong leadership" from police and added that the government would ensure they had the resources in place to catch the rioters responsible.
More on the locally-organised clean-ups. A Riotcleanup website has been set up, which is posting locations of clean-up sites today.
The locations posted so far are: Camden at 11am, meeeting outside Camden Town tube; Ealing at 10am, meeting at The Horse; Bethnal Green at 10am, meeting outside the Money Store; in Camberwell at 10am, meeting at the corner of Walworth Road and East Street and also 10am, a street clean outside Camberwell Church. In Birmingham, the plan is to meet at 10am at the Bull Ring centre.
In the comments, user Disgruntlednurse praises police in Bristol, saying they "kept on top of" the stituation there.
Although damage around stokes croft/ M32 – in no way the wholesale rampage in other parts of the country. They kept in constant communication with us overnight so we could plan for any eventualities.
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in London after an incident in Brent, north west London. At around 2.50am, a police officer was injured after a car was driven into him while he was trying to stop looters. He is in a stable condition in hospital. A second officer suffered minor injuries.
England's friendly against Holland at Wembley tomorrow evening is under threat. With 70,000 football fans expected, it seems inconeivable that police will allow it to go ahead. Carling Cup ties involving West Ham and Charlton have already been cancelled.
There has been a lot of debate – particularly in the comments section of our live blogs and others – about whether the police should be given water cannons to deal with the rioters, and whether the army should be called in. The home secretary, Theresa May, has just pretty much ruled on water cannon, in an interview on Sky News.
The way we police in Britain is not with water cannon. The way we police in Britain is on the streets and with the communities.
May said that she would consult senior police commanders today about any further resources they require.
Kit Malthouse, the deputy mayor of London, who has been manning the fort in the absence of Boris Johnson, was on BBC News last night, saying he did not want to see the army on the streets of London
A property on fire near Reeves Corner, Croydon, south London. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA
The sheer frustation of many residents affecting by the rioting is evident. BBC Radio 5 Live is a must-listen for first-hand accounts this morning, broadcasting from Croydon, scene of many disturbances last night. In a report from Hackney, I heard the Rt Rev Adrian Newman, Bishop of Stepney, describe scenes there last night as "apocalyptic".
Fire fighters are continuing to tackle a large blaze at a Sony distribution centre near Enfield, north London, which has sent plumes of thick smoke across the sky.
Sam Jones here, taking over from Matt Wells for another day of live coverage. Please drop me an email — sam.jones@guardian.co.uk — or a tweet (@swajones) to let us know what's going on where you live.
Here's a snapshot of things in Ealing, west London, this morning, jotted as I headed in:
If Ealing residents didn't hear the looting and violence spreading westwards last night, they found ample evidence of the havoc wrought as they headed into work this morning. Haven Green, which was calm early yesterday evening, looked as though it had hosted a messy and raucous festival.
Dozens of pigeons feasted on the scraps from bins upturned during the skirmishes as police stood beside their vans behind taped lines. The Broadway had attracted most of the rioters' wrath: only shops with metal shutters had endured the night unscathed.
Close to the station, the pavement was carpeted with glass from smashed shop windows and, improbably, glass from a broken champagne bottle. Cafes, little shops, restaurants and Tesco had all been hit and many had reclad their fronts in timber. One restaurant still had a metal chair embedded in its shattered glass front, a seemingly gravity-defying reminder of the night's violence.
As shopkeepers shook their heads and began sweeping up the glass, police officers directed commuters away from the front of Ealing Broadway station - now a crime scene. One officer, still in riot overalls from the night before, smiled tiredly when asked what the previous hours had been like. 'Well, it was a riot,' he said.
The Met are saying that 5,500 officers were deployed last night to cope with what they're calling some of the worst violence in living memory. And a man in his 60s is in hospital with life-threatening injuries following last night's violence. More details as soon as we have them …
This, too, is quite staggering: the Met say all London's police cells are full and suspects are being taken to stations outside the capital (via @SkyNewsBreak)
We're getting some info on things in Colliers Wood, south London. Maria sends in this distressing account:
At around 7.30-8 o'clock in the evening, lots of youths started congregating around the Tandem Centre retail park. There is a block of 12 flats on top of the shops and we used to live there. We just moved out a few days ago. I started following the buzz on Twitter that something was going to happen and I got a call from our friends from the flat. They were terrified. They could see teenagers surrounding the retail park.
Youths started running towards the shops, and set the Jessops alight. Residents were stranded inside the building. Rioters broke into Jessops, Game, JD Sports and Argos and stole everything. Everything was smashed.
They set Harvey's and Mothercare on fire. I live quite a few streets away, and there was still so much smoke on the road and the smell was overpowering. Some friends managed to get away and stay here with us, but some were still inside terrified.
None of us slept last night. It was a horrible, frightening experience. Please report this. It happened, and we are so afraid it will happen again.
I will try to get some pictures, but please report this. I have no idea why this hasn't been stopped. I have no idea how.
Trevor Reeves, the owner of the Reeves furniture store in Croydon, which was destroyed by fire last night, said on Radio 5 Live that he was "devastated" by what happened. He appealed for residents to support the rebuilding of his business, which he said would continue to trade from its second store in the area:
We ask for the support of the community - if they want to buy furinture, give us a go first. We have been through two world wars and we are still here. There must be something in the genetic make-up. We are going to fight to rebuild this."
My colleague Helen Clifton in Manchester has been speaking to Greater Manchester police, who are stressing that the trouble in Salford last night — which saw four or five cars damaged — was not connected with the riots elsewhere in the country. They say it was the kind of thing they are used to, adding that they remain ready to offer back-up to the Met if it is required.
Some travel news now, courtesy of PA:
Motorists and bus passengers had to contend with numerous road closures today following another night of violence on the streets.
Among roads that remained shut were routes in one of the worst-hit riot areas — Croydon in south east London.
Woolwich Arsenal main line station in south east London was shut, but many of the rail and Tube stations that had to close last night were open today.
London Road in Croydon was closed due to a building fire and the town's Duppas Hill Road was also shut.
A building fire caused Montacute road in New Addington, south east London, to be closed, while another building fire meant Ripple Road in Barking, east London, was shut.
Other road closures included Tottenham High Road in north London; Madeley Road in Ealing, west London; Rye Lane in Peckham, south London, and Station Road in Barking.
There was better news for London Underground travellers, with Brixton station on the Victoria Line reopening today.
A colleague sends this from Stamford Hill in north-east London:
My local cab company on Stoke Newington Church Street, Premier Cars, told me last night they weren't taking any bookings for this week and that I'd have to ring back in the morning to find out availability. 'Drivers aren't working because the area is unsafe,' the controller said.
This from Brian Tyler who lives on the Old Kent Road in south-east London:
Last night the men from the local mosque were out defending the area. One shop was broken into, but thanks to them the situation was kept under control.
Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington — an area that has seen a lot of the trouble — has told BBC Breakfast a curfew should be imposed.
I have not heard of a curfew on mainland Britain in the past century. [It's] very difficult to impose. I'm not saying that it is definitely the way forward but it is something we have to consider.
These young people, who seem to have no stake in society, are trashing their own communities. We cannot continue to have increasing numbers of looters on the streets night after night."
A quick catch-up of the situation in Birmingham, which saw its share of trouble last night:
A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service said staff were called to 34 incidents in Birmingham last night, the last of which came in at just after 3am this morning.
The majority of calls were to reports of people being assaulted.
Crews tended to 28 patients, of whom 13 went to hospitals across the city.
Injuries included lacerations and bruising to the head, a dislocated knee, general cuts, bruising and swelling, the spokesman said.
Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer Tracey Morrell said:
The majority of incidents have been as a result of assaults, but thankfully most have not been too serious. However, the fact that over a dozen patients went to hospital gives you an indication of the levels of injury.
Kent police have said that 10 men have been arrested in Medway following incidents of vandalism in Chatham, Rainham and Gillingham.
A group of around 15 young men — who are believed to have travelled to the area by train — caused damage by setting several fires across the Medway towns.
Some stark language from the Met, who have admitted that their reinforcements "box was empty" last night, meaning the overstretched force had to send non-specialist officers sent to deal with rioters.
Pc Paul Deller, who was based in the control room co-ordinating the force's response to the violence, has told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
We simply ran out of units to send. That's not something we would normally expose those officers to a risk of, but last night decisions were made that we had to and that's what we did. We threw everything we had at it."
Pc Deller, who chairs the Met's Constables' Federation, denied the "terrifying" scenes showed police had given up trying to protect property:
We didn't surrender the streets. Over 50 of my colleagues were injured last night defending those streets to the best of their capability. I don't think at any point did we surrender."
The Guardian's crime correspondent, Sandra Laville, has been looking at the extraordinary measures police adopted last night in their bid to contain the violence. She also predicts tougher tactics are on the way:
Armoured vehicles have been brought in to clear the streets for the first time by police to tackle what senior officers say is the worst rioting and looting in living memory.
"More than 6,000 officers — including 2500 mostly public order trained officers and 3,500 local officers — were on duty as violence spread from north, to east, west and south London last night. Fires burned in Croydon, Clapham Junction and Hackney as well as flaring up outside the capital in Liverpool.
"Senior officers say the violence and looting was the worst in living memory last night; eclipsing the inner city rioting of the mid 1980s in Toxteth, Brixton and Tottenham at the height of Margaret Thatcher's premiership.
"Armoured vehicles — known as Jenkels — were brought in during the early hours of the morning in Clapham Junction where much of the worst lootin and arson took place. The vehicles were driven onto Lavender Hill to push back a crowd of 150 looters who had smashed up Debenhams and other stores and businesses in the area.
"Their deployment brought echoes of Northern Ireland during the Troubles to British streets and marked the start of what sources say are much toughter tactics against rioters.
Here's the official Met line on their lack of cells:
A significant number of arrests were made overnight, leading to all our cells being full and prisoners being taken to surrounding forces."
Policeman walks past a burning car in Hackney. Photograph: Michael Bowles /Rex Features
My colleague Lizzy Davies is down in Hackney, east London, where people are trying to clean up and come to terms with what happened last night. She writes:
I'm at the scene of last night's violence on Clarence road, beside the Pembury estate, seeing the effects of the looting on one particular shop, the Clarence convenience store.
The clean-up here is well under way — men are scrubbing the green graffiti 'fuck the pigs' off the shutters — but the real damage will clearly not go away so easily.
Inside the shop is a mess: shelving pulled off the wall, magazines and food littering the floor. Outside stands the owner, who is too shocked to say anything except:
I watched it on television. It is everything, everything gone."
Another man stands by him and cries.
The London Fire Brigade received 2169 calls last night — 15 times the normal number.
This from PA in south London:
In Peckham, looters had broken into a Clarks shoe shop by throwing a bin through a window.
Meanwhile, workers in clothes store Primark were seen picking up small pieces of shattered glass inside the building.
One local woman said:
I can't believe this. It is so embarrassing. It is disgusting, they live here."
Clean-up crews with brushes, carts and vans were out in force. Some workers were pausing to take photos of the destruction on their mobile phones.
Police officers were standing outside a cordon which had been placed around a Burger King and a Ladbrokes which had been badly damaged in the violence.
Outside Peckham Fire Station, the smell of burnt rubber lingered in the air after a bus was set alight last night.
A few charred remains and pieces of broken glass were seen scattered on the road but the vehicle had been removed.
Eyewitnesses saw billowing smoke coming from the bus last night and described the scenes in Peckham as a "war zone".
Here's some video from Clapham Junction last night, shot by one of our commenters -
My colleague Lisa O'Carroll says a clean up operation is underway in Walworth road, near Elephant and Castle in south London. Argos, Betfred and a pawn shop all raided last night.
My camera-wielding colleague John Domokos was out on Kingsland High Street in east London last night.
It shows a group of Turkish shopkeepers were out on the streets defending their businesses.
A Twitter user called Lovecat McAwesome — probably not their real name — tweets this:
Beckenham Sainsburys and Bromley Top Shop have been looted, late last night.
.
According to Sky, the Met is now asking all special constables to report for duty.
A bit more on the Met's call-up of special constables and on what Scotland Yard is now referring to as "the worst night in current memory":
Acting Met Commissioner Tim Godwin called today for all special constables to report for duty and "for employers to support this".
Scotland Yard said a total of 44 police officers were injured last night, a man in his 60s suffered life-threatening head injuries and police received almost 20,800 999 calls, 400% more than the usual 5,400. A spokesman said:
Last night was the worst the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) has seen in current memory for unacceptable levels of widespread looting, fires and disorder.
"The MPS responded with the largest policing operation of the three nights to date (approximately 2,500 officers in addition to 3,500 officers already on boroughs).
"This included receiving aid from other forces and using armoured vehicles to support officers on the ground to clear areas of trouble.
"A significant number of arrests were made (well over 200 overnight - in excess of 450 over the three nights), leading to all MPS cells being full and prisoners being taken to surrounding forces."
This from Iman Khalaf in Woolwich, south London:
The smell of smoke, broken glass, and a burnt out car at Woolwich town centre this morning. Buses not running.
The poor shopkeepers who are sweeping up the shards of their livelihoods today will probably be thinking about insurance claims. According to Reuters, the rioting of the last few days is likely to cost insurers "tens of millions of pounds".
Nick Starling, director of general insurance and health at the Association of British Insurers, said:
It is too early for us to have an accurate picture of total costs, especially business interruption costs, but insurers are working hard to deal with claims coming in which will give a sense of the level and cost of damage."
My colleague Adam Vaughan has just cycled up the Walworth road in south London. He offers this snapshot:
The high street there has been pretty comprehensively looted, and there are half a dozen police cars parked up and down the street this morning. No evidence of fire damage.
Here's a list of shops that appeared to have been broken into or were heavily damaged with smashed glass:
• Betfred
• Pawnbroker
• Independent sports shop
• Argos
• Independent phone shop
• O2
• Carphone Warehouse
• Phones4U
• Cash Converters
• Foot Locker
• Boots
• Bookies
• Barclays
Lizzy Davies is with a couple of dozen people who are standing with gloves in their hands and binbags in their pockets outside Hackney town hall. She reports:
They've come from all over London for the #riotcleanup, which has been publicised on Twitter this morning.
But they've come up against an unexpected problem: the clean-up's already been done. The streets in the area have been hosed down, the glass swept up and bins re-erected in their proper places.
"It feels a bit like we've got an overefficient council," said Andrew Knight, who had come from Finsbury Park via Homebase in order to try to help out.
"I guess I felt it's not good enough not to do it. I've lived in London for 10 years and finally my moral conscience has woken up," he laughed.
Ricky Paugh, a Hampstead resident from Washington DC, said he had come "to get involved, to play my part." David Harrison, from Dalston, had brought binbags, gloves, and a broom.
"What else can we do? And if they do it again tonight we'll do the same tomorrow morning."
This deeply unpleasant YouTube video appears to show a couple of opportunists stealing from an injured and dazed boy. The headline on the video isn't ours of course, although I'm not sure many people would disagree with the general sentiment expressed.
The person who pointed us to it adds:
A poor lad, obviously in distress, sits bleeding on the ground. He is 'helped' up and then robbed. This is bottom of the barrel, I hope who did this get what's coming.
My colleague Martin Wainwright has this on the situation in Birmingham, where a plea for normality and support has gone out:
Birmingham appealed to workers, visitors and shoppers not to avoid the city, saying that all routes in were open and sticking to everyday routines would help restore normality.
Paul Tilsley, deputy leader of the city council, said that cleaning-up was under way and retailers were working to return to business as usual.
West Midlands assistant chief constable Sharon Rowe said that officers were studying CCTV of the violence which saw around 100 arrests. She said: "The investigation into the disorder has already started and we are proactively reviewing the CCTV to identify other offenders and bring them to justice."
Small areas in the city and Handsworth remain cordoned-off while forensic teams work through damaged properties and the remains of burned-out cars.
Handsworth saw serious street violence in the summer of 1981 following the riots at Brixton, south London. There was more serious trouble in summer 1985 which triggered the Broadwater Farm riots in London. A third looting spree took place in September 1991 after a widespread power cut left the area in darkness.
Not surprisingly, tomorrow's England v Holland friendly at Wembley has been called off.
We're due to hear from David Cameron, who's returned from his holidays to chair a Cobra meeting, in about 20 minutes.
Large fires are burning in Ealing, Enfield, Croydon, Woolwich and Woodford Green, according to Sky.
Fire destroys a Sony distribution warehouse in Enfiel, north London. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters
The picture above shows the Sony warehouse in Enfield ablaze last night. It is still burning this morning.
My colleague Nick Fletcher has been looking at the impact of the unrest on the high street:
Greggs, the high street baker, said 19 shops had been closed in London after the chaos, with overnight deliveries at a number of stores also affected. Greggs chief executive Kennedy McMeikan told Reuters one shop was looted and anther badly damaged by fire.
Have you shot or obtained video of the riots and looting to share? Get in touch with us at your.videos@guardian.co.uk
A reader, Rebecca from Tottenham Hale, sends this on the clean-ups – and lack of them in some areas:
Great to see the Twitter cleanups – Mare street was spotless this morning!
Perhaps Haringey council would like to explain why our street in Tottenham – which was filled with looting rioters from the retail park all saturday night – has not seen a cleanup (we did it ourselves on Sunday but there's still a lot of rubbish lying around, it just keeps coming from somewhere) and perhaps the Met would like to explain why they didn't come out to our road despite tens of phonecalls from residents.
We've not even seen any PCSOs checking people are OK, and there are some elderly people too scared to go out.
Obviously there's a lot going on. Obviously. But the parts of the community that weren't alienated from the police before are rapidly becoming so.
Here's a video from Peckham in south-east London.
Shops were looted and stolen fireworks thrown at lines of riot police in what locals described as a "war zone".
Here's a bit more on tomorrow's cancelled football match from PA:
The Football Association confirmed that England's friendly against Holland at Wembley has been called off following a third night of violence in London.
The news seemed inevitable with disturbances in places far removed from the area of Tottenham – where the original disquiet arose on Saturday evening.
With the Metropolitan police unaware of how much further the violence would spread, there was little alternative other than to scrap the contest, for which around 70,000 tickets had been sold.
A colleague has spoken to a police contact in London, who has told him that officers with no public order training are being asked to step in to public order situations tonight.
Those with grade two training – a two-day course – are being asked to don riot gear. It's a sign of the severity of the situation.
My colleague Andrew Sparrow has sent me this – a potentially significant development:
There are reports on Twitter that David Cameron is going to announce that parliament will be recalled on Thursday. Guido Fawkes seemed to get there first.
Downing Street aren't confirming that, but it sounds very plausible. Cameron can't just come out of No 10 and give us the standard spiel that we've been hearing from ministers for the last 48 hours about condemning violence. He's going to have to have something big to announce. We'll find out soon. He's due to speak at 10.45am.
The results of the postmortem examination on Mark Duggan, whose death led to the initial riots, have been released, according to Sky News. It shows that he died from a single gunshot wound.
Observer sports writer Jamie Jackson says the British Olympic Association is currently meeting at its central London headquarters, deciding how best to respond to the disorder in the capital. He says the disturbances must represent their worst nightmares, with less than a year to go until the London 2012 games begin.
Guardian sports writer David Hopps, who is at Edgbaston in Birmingham, says England cricket officials have said that rioting in the city centre posed no threat to the third Test which is due to begin at Edgbaston on Wednesday. "It is business as usual and we are preparing to be ready to go tomorrow," said Steve Elworthy, head of communications for the England and wales Cricket Board. "We are communicating with police but the usual protocols are in place."
David writes that Indian team officials were also briefed about the riots and their security was reviewed. There were 100 arrests for offences including aggravated burglary and violent disorder as the riot centred upon the Bull Ring area in the central shopping area.
The England players were advised not to stray too far from their city centre hotel, the Hyatt Regency as looters rampaged through the city centre. Many took to Twitter to express their shock at the signs. Kevin Pietersen called for rioters to go down to the Job Centre instead.
Colin Povey, Warwickshire's chief executive, said: "We have got a robust securty plan in place for the game. Obviously we will continue to review it as the day progresses but at the moment it is situation normal. There are no special security arrangements in place."
My colleague Haroon Siddique sends this amazing story about a hold-up at a Michelin-starred restaurant. He writes:
Staff at the Michelin-starred restaurant the Ledbury, in Notting Hill, north-west London, leapt to the defence of diners when it was targeted by a gang last night.
One of those eating at the restaurant when it came under attack was Louise Yang, who blogs under the name Naked Sushi and posted an account of the heroic intervention by staff.
A restaurant spokesman said the Ledbury would be releasing a statement shortly but confirmed the basic details of the incident. Yang wrote:
Around the fourth dish of the tasting course, there were loud bangs outside. The restaurant staff [were] yelling at us to get away from the windows. Before I knew it, the front door, a solid piece of glass, shattered and people came crashing in with hoodies, masks, and random weapons.
The looters were yelling at us to get down and throwing stuff all over the place. I got down and started taking off my wedding and engagement ring to hide somewhere, but unfortunately wasn't fast enough. One looter came up and demanded my phone. I didn't have it with me since it was in my purse and it was out of arm reach. I also didn't want to lead him to my passport, so I said I didn't have one.
He told me to take off my rings and grabbed my hand, trying to yank them off. His friend tried to help too, but the rings wouldn't come off and I just yelled at him that I'd take them off myself. In hindsight, now that I know that gun control is so fierce in England and he only had a bat, I should have held on to my rings better and maybe slugged him in the face.
The kitchen staff at the Ledbury went beyond their call of duty by rushing up from the kitchen with rolling pins, fry baskets, and other dangerous kitchen tools and scared off the looters. Then they provided well-needed glasses of alcohol including champagne and whisky.
Yang said that word then came that the looters were coming back a second time at which point the staff ushered the diners into the bathrooms and told them to lock the doors. A few minutes later, they led them into the wine cellar and told us to lock ourselves in there. She concluded:
Guy who took my ring, I hope you put it to good use and don't just dump it in the street. Also, I hope you get a case of flaming diarrhoea for the rest of your life. Ledbury staff, thanks for keeping things under control and giving me some petit fours to munch on.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman has confirmed that there is enough room in jail for anyone sentenced to custody as a result of the violence and looting.
"We have enough prison places for those that are sentenced to custody," she said. "There is substantial capacity in the prison system - currently there are 2,500 unused spaces within the estate. The total prison population on Friday August 5 2011 was 85,523." The usable operational capacity was 88,039.
She also confirmed that there was no reported trouble connected with the riots in any prison in England and Wales.
Acting Scotland Yard commissioner Tim Godwin has described yesterday as "a sad day for London" and pledged: "We will be out there in ever greater numbers tonight."
He said there had been "far too many" young people on the streets of London last night and called on parents and guardians to keep them in tonight.
David Cameron is speaking now.
We will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain's streets and make them safe for the law-abiding, the PM says. He condemns the violence in strong terms.
It is criminality pure and simple and has to be confronted and defeated, Cameron says.
We need more police on our streets, he says, and that is what Cobra has been discussing. All Metropolitan police leave has been cancelled and there will be aid coming from other forces.
Cameron has a message to the rioters: "You will feel the full force of the law. If you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punishment."
Parliament will be recalled for a day on Thursday so he can make a statement to MPs and hold a debate.
With that he leaves, a question following him: "Have you lost control of events, prime minister?"
Tonight there will be 16,000 officers on the streets of London, Cameron said.
David Cameron outside No 10 on 9 August 2011. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Here's a big chunk of David Cameron's statement, courtesy of my colleague Caroline Davies:
The Metropolitan police commissioner has said compared with the 6,000 police on the streets last night in London, there will be some 16,000 officers tonight.
All leave within the Metropolitan police has been cancelled. There will be aid coming from police forces up and down the country and we will do everything necessary to strengthen and assist those police forces that are meeting this disorder.
There's already been 450 people arrested; we will make sure that court procedures and processes are speeded up and people should expect to see more — many more — arrests in the days to come.
I am determined, the government is determined, that justice will be done and these people will see the consequences of their action.
And I have this very clear message to those people who are responsible for this wrongdoing and criminality: you will feel the full force of the law. If you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishments.
And to these people I would say this: you are not only wrecking the lives of others; you are not only wrecking your own communities — you are potentially wrecking your own life too.
My office this morning has spoken to the speaker of the House of Commons and he is agreed that parliament will be recalled for a day on Thursday so I can make make a statement to parliament and we can hold a debate and we are all able to stand together in condemnation of these crimes — and also to stand together in determination to rebuild these communities.
Now if you excuse me there is important work to be done.
This dispatch, from my colleague Jasmine Coleman in north London, illustrates the lengths to which some shopkeepers in the capital are going to protect their businesses:
More than 200 shopkeepers - joined by friends and relatives - were out in the street in Green Lanes, Haringey, from 8pm last night, according to those workers getting back to normal today.
Among them were three members of staff from Re-Style Hairdressers.
They told me they had armed themselves with baseball bats specifically in response to last night's continuing riots across the capital."I was here with my brother and my boss waiting for them until about midnight," said 16-year-old Huseyin Beytar, who lives in Enfield, one of the worst hit areas in London.
"We had to look after the shops and stop them breaking windows. If some guy ever breaks a window in this street, all the Turkish Kurdish people come down to protect the shops. We're like a family."
The salon's managing director, who asked not to be named, said he had heard looters were planning to target the nearby retail park - as they were in the neighbouring borough of Hackney.
"We heard about Hackney and two or three hours later we saw it coming true. We thought it would happen here too."
The workers in this predominantly Turkish Kurdish area of north London told me last night's vigilante defence of businesses was a reaction to failures from police in the past to respond to emergency calls.
"They don't come, they don't do anything," said Huseyin. "We have to do things for ourselves. We are a bunch of people and can look after each other."
As people across London and the UK wait to see when the unrest will end, traders here are ready to take to the streets again tonight and have issued a strong warning.
"If they come here there will be a fight, a big fight," said Huseyin.
My Cairo colleague Jack Shenker draws our attention to a story on the website of Press TV, a broadcaster funded by the Iranian government. It seems Tehran is urging the British police to exercise restraint when dealing with the protesters:
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast urged the British government to order the police to stop their violent confrontation with the people, IRNA reported in the early hours of Tuesday.
Mehmanparast asked the British government to start dialogue with the protesters and to listen to their demands in order to calm the situation down.
The Iranian official also asked independent human rights organisations to investigate the killing [of Mark Duggan] in order to protect the civil rights and civil liberties ...
Turmoil is now threatening to sweep across all of Britain as the unfolding mayhem and looting has also raged the central city of Birmingham, the western city of Bristol, the north-western city of Liverpool, and south London neighbourhood of Brixton.
As if this story wasn't odd enough, it appears that the TV historian Dan Snow managed to detain a looter last night:
I have just apprehended a rioter!
He added later:
Thanks for the messages. I was involved in one incident. The police are flat out all night. I don't know how they do it. Massive respect.
Here's Andrew Sparrow's story on David Cameron's announcement.
Here is the full story on the inquest into Mark Duggan's death being told he died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
More on the plight of the shopkeepers who have had their stores vandalised, looted or destroyed. The Association of Convenience Stores has just put this out:
• 93 stores have been affected, either directly or in that newspaper wholesalers cannot get deliveries to them.
• Retailers who have been the victims of looting, arson or other attacks will be able to claim against their insurance with an excess payment, typically around £250.
• Insurance companies will be seeking to claim costs back from local police budgets under the provisions of the Riot Damages Act (1886). In order to do this, claims must be registered within fourteen days, and insurance companies are likely to require the claim and supporting evidence within seven days. ACS is advising retailers making claims to do so as quickly as possible and to contact their insurance providers immediately.
• These claims also rely on the home secretary or police declaring the incident a riot, defined in the Public Order Act 1986 as twelve or more people threatening violence for a common purpose, causing people to fear for their safety.• There are unconfirmed reports of retailers being uninsured. A significant minority of retailers only insure against fire or business-threatening incidents, so it is possible that some retailers will be uninsured for damage and looting.
• Insurance premiums have on average increased by over 10% in the past year, with some retailers reporting increases of up to 20%.
• Stores in affected areas are generally planning to close early today. Given that the Hackney riots began yesterday afternoon, it is likely that stores in areas that have been affected, or that may be affected, will close during the afternoon.
• During opening hours, trade is extremely slow in the affected areas as people stay inside.
• Experience from Northern Ireland suggests that retail areas can take a long time to recover from rioting. In some cases retailers decide not to re-open.
This Tumblr blog has been set up to identify looters.
The police are also calling for pictures and information on Twitter at #tweetalooter:
And this is a Facebook page set up to help organise a clean-up of affected areas.
Humphrey Flowerdew has just been in touch to tells us about his website Cravify, which displays relevant tweets on Google Maps and allows people to find out about riots spreading or coming close to their neighbourhood.
Here are a couple more sport updates from our colleague David Hopps:
India's cricket team issued a statement via their tour manager Anirudh Chaudhary, confirming their intention to fulfil the third Test in Birmingham, which begins tomorrow. Chadhary said: "This is pertaining to the situation in Birmingham. All the members of the Indian touring squad are safe and accounted for. The team management is keeping a close watch on the situation."
India, 2-0 down in the series with two to play, have not expressed alarm about continuing the tour, and there is no possibility that they will, especially in view of the fact that England, after a brief suspension, fulfilled their 2008 tour of India in the wake of Mumbai terrorist attacks that left 164 dead and more than 300 injured.
Some Indian cricketers were out for dinner in the city centre when the trouble began and were called back to their hotels.
Jamie Jackson, meanwhile, sends news from Locog — the body charged with organising the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.
Despite the rioting, Locog is intent that it is business as usual, with a scheduled beach volleyball test event going ahead today.
A statement from Locog said: "A lot of detailed work has taken place regarding security plans for the games and we will continue to review them together with the Met police and the Home Office over the coming year."
City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain has warned that businesses which have suffered from the current spate of rioting must act quickly or they risk not being able to recover their losses, my colleague Julia Kollowe tells me.
RPC explains that most insurers require claims for riot damage to be notified within a very short period – typically seven days – otherwise the claim may be rejected.
This is because the insurer can make a claim in the policyholder's name against the police to recover their losses under the Riots (Damages) Act 1886. However, to do so that claim must normally be lodged within 14 days of the damage occurring.
Stuart White, partner at RPC, says: "Riots have caused millions of pounds worth of damage over the last few days. Businesses that have suffered riot damage should notify their insurer as soon as possible so as to avoid being left without insurance cover. Any delay is an unnecessary risk."
Have you been mugged or burgled during the rioting and looting? Do you know anyone who has? If you want to talk about it, please email my colleague Alexandra Topping, who's pulling together a piece on the personal cost of the unrest. You can email her at alexandra.topping@guardian.co.uk or reach her @LexyTopping on Twitter.
Henry Barnes on the Guardian film desk has been looking into the fire at the Sony warehouse in Enfield.
"Most of the people in the independent film world have been hit," said David Wilkinson, CEO of distributor Guerilla Films, which lost 60,000 DVDs in the fire. "Companies larger than mine will have cashflow problems. I have spoken to friends who say they may have to lay off people, because the DVDs keep the business going."
Tom Abell, managing director of Peccadillo Pictures, says his company has lost virtually all its DVD stock – between 50 and 60,000 units. "They were all DVDs that were going to be released in the next few weeks. it's a huge dent in our business: the stock can be replaced, but there's nothing there to sell right now. It's basically a cashflow problem. We think we can get through it, but it means spreading payments out, and pleading with people."
Burnt offerings ... The Sony warehouse fire is likely to rewrite the release schedules of many of the UK’s small and independent film distributors. Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters
Sony is expected to release a statement soon.
Fascinating New York Times piece on what the bloggers who chronicled the Egyptian protests are making of events in the UK:
As she switched between coverage of London's riots on CNN and Al Jazeera, Zeinobia wrote: "To be honest I do not understand why protesters would set shops and houses on fire … I am sorry but you do not loot to object the murder of a young man; you are using his murder."
Jamie Jackson has more on what the riots mean for next year's Olympic Games in London:
The International Olympic Committee says it is confident that the 2012 London Olympics will be secure despite the riots that have wreaked havoc in the capital over the last three days.
The IOC is clear, though, that the responsibility lies with the British government, the Metropolitan police and other domestic agencies to ensure that the event does pass off without any incident.
A statement from the IOC said: "Security at the Olympic Games is a top priority for the IOC. It is, however, directly handled by the local authorities, as they know best what is appropriate and proportionate. We are confident they will do a good job in this domain."
Locog, the committee charged with organising the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is intent that it is business as usual. A three-day test event, the beach volleyball, has started today on Horse Guards Parade, near Downing Street.
Some links from other sections of the Guardian website.
Lara Oyedele of Odu-Dua housing association, who lives in Tottenham, looks at the motivation of the rioters.
The looting doesn't surprise me: it's entertainment, something to keep young people busy. It's not right, but those are the facts. Simply, if they had to go to work this morning they wouldn't have been rioting last night. They're disaffected, unhappy and upset, and they are looking at the likes of me, saying: you need to give me something, I need a job, I need you to help me.
Here's a video of David Cameron's statement.
And here's a story on attacks on ITN, Sky and CNN reporters last night.
This video shows Sky News's Mark Stone asking looters: "Are you proud of what you're doing?"
And in case you've been wondering what the best-selling novelist and failed London mayoral candidate Jeffrey Archer makes of recent events, here's a helpful tweet from the man himself:
It is not often that I regret not being mayor of London, but I do this morning.
Another Birmingham update from Martin Wainwright:
Twitter, Facebook and old-fashioned jumping in the car to lend a hand are helping to sort out the overnight chaos in Birmingham, which saw some of the choicest shops in the "capital of the Midlands" attacked.
Up to £500,000 damage and theft was inflicted on the Emporio Armani outlet in the Bullring centre but security guards with fire extinguishers protected the local branch of Harvey Nichols.
Dozens of smaller outlets were also targeted, prompting widespread resentment and the use of "help the clear-up" tweets to counter use of the networks on Monday night by troublemakers.
Among volunteers spending time on the clean-up was Richard Dunne, a 53-year-old artist who answered council appeals for people not to avoid the city centre. He said: "I love my city. I want people to see that we in Birmingham aren't just thugs, we help each other.
"You can feel some sympathy for someone who steals a tin of beans because they have no money for their last meal. But these guys were just nicking phones and gear, while many of them were already well kitted out with stuff beforehand."
Another helper was Claire Hampson, who joined dozens of others alerted by tweets to a 10am clear-up at the Bullring.
She said: "I was appalled when I saw what had happened in the city centre. I could hear sirens all night last night, but nothing could prepare me for seeing the city centre all smashed up. I heard about this clear up on Twitter so wanted to come down and show my support."
Business consultant Nick Partridge, 48, also left home to help as messages flicked to and fro on social networks urging support for devastated shopkeepers. He was up early after driving in on Monday night to give his teenage daughter a safe lift home from the Hippodrome.
"I want to do what I can to help," he said. "These people rioted last night and may do so again tonight but they'll disappear soon. We will remain, the good people of Birmingham."
My colleague Lisa O'Carroll has a story about one of the most memorable images of the unrest so far:
Amy Weston, the photographer who took the shot of the woman leaping out of a burning building in Croydon, has told of the mayhem when she took the shot.
"I was told there were fires in the Church Street area, near Surrey Street Market.
"By the time I drove towards it, I could already see the fires from my windscreen," said Weston who works for the London-based WENN agency.
"There were six or seven people screaming and crying outside, and they looked like they lived at the flats that were burning. The flats were above small independent shops. A man in a white shirt was screaming that a girl was at the window and that she was ready to jump. He ran towards her but riot police had appeared and pulled him back, and they went to her instead.
"As soon as she dropped, the crowds pushed back and there was no way to see what happened to her. I remember hearing people screaming that there were more people in the building. The crowds started getting angry with each other, with one group blaming another group for starting the fire.
"There were warnings of gas cylinders being fired into the crowd from riot police so I got out of there. I couldn't get to my car so I had to walk, wrapping my camera in my clothes to avoid being mugged."
My colleague Alex Hawkes has some — possibly good — news for those householders and business owners who have been hit by the riots:
At the moment it seems that any insurance claims submitted by businesses or homeowners as a result of the riots could eventually be picked up by the government. If the police or home secretary officially label the disruptions a "riot" under the Public Order Act 1986, insurers can claim compensation from police funds for the area affected. At the moment the only estimates of damage, from the Association of British Insurers, put the cost at "tens of millions" — we'll try to get a more precise figure as things become clearer later today.
Want to help tidy up Birmingham? So does Stan Collymore.
Ok, going to be by the bull on the bullring at 12:30 if anyone wants to help in any way. If it sets a tone, great, it's the right thing to do.
Jasmine Coleman sends more from Green Lanes in north London, where she has been talking to shopkeepers who have told her they feel forced to fight for their livelihoods:
Many of the independent Turkish and Kurdish grocery shops, takeaways and hairdressers in the street do not have shutters or security guards. So closing early and going home just isn't an option.
Workers, friends and relatives stood on guard — some with baseball bats — outside the businesses yesterday evening after word spread at about 4pm that a loot was being planned.
In the end, the rioters didn't arrive. But many business owners fear they are the ones that would be punished by police if fights did break out.
"We were outside ready and expecting them," said the manager of the Turkish Food Market, who asked not to be named.
"I felt very panicky because we are not safe from either the rioters or police. We put all of our efforts into this shop. It took 20 years to get it like this. But we do not know about our rights. I'm scared that the police and the government will attack us if we defend our businesses. We are being squeezed between the two dangers."
Huseyin Yavuz, the manager of another grocery store and off licence across the road, told me two nearby businesses had been burgled in the early hours of Sunday morning, after first riots in Tottenham, and their owners had been told there were no officers available to respond.
But when workers later took to the streets with bats to defend the shops, they were warned by police that they could be arrested."We just have to go inside and wait," he said.
Press Gazette has a good blog highlighting the astonishing, 24-hour job that many local and regional journalists are doing to keep their communities up-to-date and correctly informed about the riots. A lot of their work is standing up and knocking down Twitter rumours.
This bulletin from the Guardian's Kim Willsher in Paris is a timely reminder that rioting — and nasty prejudice — are not unknown in Europe:
Paris is no stranger to rioting youngsters, and burning cars is so much a new year and high holiday tradition, that is passes almost unreported. But the rioting in London and other parts of Britain made the front-page headlines in most of the French newspapers.
The coverage was mostly news reporting of events, but the Monday edition of Le Monde carried the headline: "Riots in London: the British press dramatises and tries to understand."
Most surprising were readers' responses to the upmarket and respected newspaper's report, which varied from echoes of the paper's leftwing, anti-market, anti-capitalist line, to outright Schadenfreude and xenophobic anti-English sentiment.
"Globalisation engenders an excess of individualism and nowhere more so than in Anglo-Saxon countries," wrote Jean-Marc Creau on the site. Joelle Koenig added: "Since the Reagan and Thatcher years, deregulation has grown faster. They reduced taxes for billionaires ... and now they want to work the people of Tottenham and elsewhere to death to pay off the debt."
Jean Baptiste Clamence wrote: "There exists in England an underclass that does not exist anywhere else in Europe. White, little educated, without any means of social evolution, they are a perfect example of the results of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and its dehumanising program. The English perversion is to make this population proud of their misery and their ignorance. The situation is hopeless. I've more hope for the youth of our banlieues."
Rioting broke out in the gritty high-rise housing estates of the Paris suburbs and other French cities in October and November 2005, triggered by the deaths of two teenagers in Clichy-sous-Bois, a poor commune in the eastern suburbs. The youths had been chased by police and taken refuge in an electricity substation where they were
electrocuted.Some blamed Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, for provoking the simmering anger in the impoverished banlieues by threatening to clear out the criminal "rabble" with a high-pressure water pipe. Most action involved the burning of cars and public buildings. A state of emergency was declared in November 2005 and lasted three months. In nearly three weeks of rioting, looting and unrest an estimated 274 towns were hit, 8,973 vehicles damaged, 2,888 arrests made, 126 police and firefighters injured and two people killed. The bill for the damage came to around €200m. 18,000 armed police and CRS (riot police) were deployed as well as a 1,500-strong reserve force.
Although the riots were widely blamed on poverty and racial and social discrimination, little has changed for the banlieues' largely unemployed morth African population. In the years that followed the right of centre government under President Jacques Chirac and his successor, the current French leader Nicolas Sarkozy, instigated a crackdown on immigration.
My colleague Vikram Dodd reports that a man shot in Croydon last night has died. We will have more on this as we get it.
Vikram has also been told by a police source that London's resources are being stretched as never before.
One Whitehall source, speaking on condition of anonymity, has told the Guardian that there are no current plans to involve the armed forces to stem the rioting.
"It's being handled as a civil matter, Home Office lead rather than the Ministry of Defence. There are no plans to deploy [the armed forces]."
The source said the police were promising to put thousands of extra officers on the streets, and that - so far - there had been no request from the Home Office for the MoD to draw up contingency plans for military involvement.
Vikram Dodd reports that the police may use baton rounds – non-lethal plastic bullets – tonight.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh of the Metropolitan police has told Sandra Laville regarding using plastic bullets tonight: "If we need to, we will do so."
Nicky Getgood, a local blogger in Birmingham, has posted this audioboo after speaking to helpers at the clean up effort in the city centre.
Vince Cable said riots could not be allowed to led to a loss of confidence in business sector, reports Caroline Davies. Speaking on Sky News, the business secretary said:
We have got to make sure that businesses are not affected. Clearly they are entirely innocent parties, they're victims of this grossly thuggish behaviour.
They've got to be protected and supported. And there are different aspects to this. One is insurance, and that is partly an issue for the industry, it's an issue about how much is industry insurance and how much is government .That's obviously being pursued.
But people have got to be helped as quickly as possible. We've got to make sure that where people have problems with tax payments, business rates, we can give them as much support as we can. And so I and my department are already talking to the various business groups about how we can best help with that.
It is very important that we don't have a loss of confidence because of what is happening to the business sector and I'm absolutely determined that we won't.
Separately, the Home Affairs Select Committee has been recalled for an emergency meeting on Thursday to consider terms of reference for an inquiry into the recent riots.
My colleague Simon Rogers has put together a map and list of every verified incident in the riots so far.
We've set up a Flickr group for people to share images of the impact the riots have had on where they live - from the damage done to how people are coping. You can add pictures and view those already submitted here.
We're hoping to create a map of the images submitted, so please geotag your pictures if adding them to the group.
Hackney town hall has been evacuated due to riot risk in London Fields, a popular gang hotspot, Jasmine Coleman reports.
A young man shot in his car during last night's "unprecedented" rioting has died, it has been confirmed.
A murder hunt was launched as police announced that the 26-year-old victim had died after being admitted to hospital.
He was discovered in a car suffering from gunshot wounds at about 9.15pm as trouble flared in Croydon, south London, last night.
James Walsh writes that in Camberwell, south London, staff at local organisations and businesses have sent people home and a fire has been spotted near a McDonald's restaurant. There is some looting, and some people are hiding out in a local hairdresser's.
Shops have been closed down in Kilburn High Road and staff sent home on police advice, Simon Rogers tells me. There were 20 arrests there last night, and two mobile phone shops were smashed up.
We are hearing that Hackney Council staff have been sent home and told to avoid London Fields.
In Ealing, shops are drawing down shutters amid fears of more violence and looting, Ian Sample writes.
Sandra Laville writes with more details of whether the police will use baton rounds – plastic bullets – tonight. She says firearms officers may use the rounds. They were available to them all three nights but the decision was taken not to deploy them. If they are used, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh of the Metropolitan police said the impact would be long-lasting:
We are not going to throw away 180 years of policing with communities quickly. The tactic will be properly considered. The repercussions and change to the way we police will be long lasting.
Sandra Laville has just called to say that 500 detectives have been going through the CCTV footage from the riots and will be making their first arrests "in a visible manner" this afternoon. Almost every detective in the Metropolitan police has been taken off other duties to handle this.
Here is a lunchtime summary:
• The riots that have plagued London for three consecutive nights have claimed their first life. A man shot in his car during last night's rioting in Croydon, south London, died after being admitted to hospital. He was discovered in a car suffering from gunshot wounds at about 9.15pm as trouble flared in the area.
• David Cameron has announced that 16,000 police officers will be deployed in London tonight, in an effort to get a grip on the violence. This is up from 6,000 the night before. The prime minister promised a tough response to any trouble tonight: "I have this very clear message to those people who are responsible for this wrongdoing and criminality: you will feel the full force of the law. If you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishments."
• Police have disclosed that live baton rounds - non-lethal plastic bullets - may be deployed tonight. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh of the Metropolitan police told our crime correspondent, Sandra Laville: "If we need to, we will do so." He said 525 people have been arrested since rioting began on Saturday, and about 100 have been charged.
• Rioting spread to other cities in Britain for the first time, with unrest in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Nottingham. West Midlands police made 138 arrests. Chief Constable Chris Sims said of the looting in the city centre: "This was not an angry crowd, this was a greedy crowd."
• A clean-up operation has got under way across London, with many residents turning out to help. A number of websites and Facebook groups have been set up to co-ordinate the volunteer forces.
James Randerson has been told that all the nurseries in Hackney are being told to close — and there are reports that the Lidl on Mare Street has been attacked.
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Jasmine Coleman has been talking to people who live either along or near Kingland High Street in Dalston, where Turkish and Kurdish shopkeepers were out in force last night.
Many are grateful to the workers around here and thank them for stopping the spread of violence from nearby Mare Street and Dalston Junction.
Debbie Mumdy, 41, who lives in Shacklewell Lane where a bus was set alight last night, said:
Most of the residents are really relieved that the Turkish community has been protecting the area. I think it was the same situation in Stoke Newington. It's thanks to these guys that Kingsland High Street wasn't attacked."
And Nick Smith, chairman of a charity fundraising business based near Dalston Junction, said:
It's brilliant. These guys are obviously going to keep the trouble down. I don't think this particular area is going to be attacked as a result."
But a 23-year-old council worker, who had just been evacuated from Hackney town hall due to fears of further rioting, said he was concerned this sort of defence would increase tensions between communities:
It is just a response from people who feel this is completely lawless and I completely understand why people are coming out to defend their businesses - but I agree with the idea that it is just going to make matters worse. I would hate to see this turn into a generational or racial battle."
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Greenwich seems to have joined Hackney, Ealing and Camberwell on the list of possible targets for today. We gather shops there are being told to close following intelligence.
Time for another international perspective on the trouble here.
Nour Ali, a pseudonym for a journalist based in Damascus, reports:
Syrian media is largely focused on the domestic crisis, where a heavy crackdown against five months of protests is ongoing amid rising international pressure, but most outlets have covered the riots in London.
Most newspapers have run fairly straight news stories, often using material from the wires. Some reports describe the unrest as 'protests', others as 'riots'. Al-Watan, an independent daily newspaper close to the Syria regime, ran a front page story on Tuesday entitled '215 people detained and government threatens the "naughty" protesters'.
Official state media agency Sana reported the story under the headline 'Riots extend to a third British city'.
Syrian TV is putting greater emphasis on the idea that the military may be called in to restore order, Syrian analysts say, spinning what may happen in the UK to match events in Syria where the army have been heavily deployed around the country.
Presenters have reported that the mayor's office in London is asking for the military to intervene and that the police are asking families to prevent their sons from protesting."
We are bringing this live blog to a close now. Follow our continuing coverage here.
Police reinforcements to boost the number of officers in the capital are pouring in from the north.
The Lancashire and Greater Manchester police forces have sent support units to aid the Metropolitan Police.
Around 100 officers from Greater Manchester Police trained in dealing with public disorder were deployed to London earlier.
More than 30 officers from three police support units (PSUs) of Lancashire Constabulary and a Public Order Commander are also assisting, along with colleagues from Cumbria Constabulary.