London's Burning

Woman jumping  down to arms of passersby, Croydon

BBC news just announced: the police are apologising to the family of the gun-toting drug gangster they shot!! Not to all the poor people who have been burned out of their homes or who have lost their businesses.
No.
The Metropolitan police have apologised to the criminals!!

Middle Class Lefty Agent Provocateur/Organiser?

 UPDATE 23.12 :22.50 Earlier tonight Turkish and Kurdish shopowners in the Stoke Newington area of North London were guarding their premises with baseball bats. There are reports now of "hundreds" of young turkish men chasing a group of young black men down nearby Kingsland Road, Hackney.

UPDATE:22.30Our reporter in Clapham Junction, South London, Andrew Hough witnessed a motorist being pulled from a car, "bleeding profusely". The shaking man told Hough: "There were gangs everywhere. We couldn't go anywhere."

UPDATE: 22.20 The Telegraph's Josie Ensor reports she was chased by a gang of 30 men who pelted her with stones near Bethnal Green station, East London. She escaped down a side street. A gang of vandals broke the windows of an Islamic bank in Whitechapel but were chased off by a rival gang of 100 Muslim youths who are standing guard outside the East London Mosque. Local shops have been attacked.

While London burns, where is the London mayor and the Prime Minister? Until 5 minutes ago, they were refusing to return to UK.

Looters are breaking into private houses and stealing property: Houses now set on fire in Deptford (near Lewisham). A white woman legged it, black looters straight in through the open door.

One looter /arsonist uses a picture of Obama for his twitter profile:

Latest from the Daily Telegraph:

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A shop is set on fire as rioters gather in Croydon Photo: AP

21.50 Alan McCabe, owner of the Old Fox and Hounds pub, Croydon, told the BBC the town tonight is "an absolute warzone" after rioting by a 200-strong mob which left buildings ablaze. This is his account:

It kicked off very quickly, very sharpishly, and we tried moving people out the pub as fast as possible. We blocked up the front doors and moved them out the back. I ripped off all the spirits off the optic behind the bar, so that if anyone did break in they couldn’t be Molotovs. Unfortunately I had a 90 year old woman in the pub. She comes in for a cup of tea, a nice quiet woman. I carried her across the road to the police who were very accommodating. Just as I got her there the riot group, 200 strong, pushed forward. The riot police were doing their best to push back. I’m trapped at the moment in a side street. I’ve got six guys that I work with, the owner, his brother, just trying to box up as much as we could. My girlfriend’s at home with a seven year old daughter. Everything’s exploding around. There’s sirens, there’s helicopters. I’ve just passed west Croydon station; it’s burning hard. I can see down by the market area something’s up in flames. I’ve seen 20 riot police heading down from the High Street towards West Croydon. It’s an absolute warzone. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s insane.

The only reason I’m out here is to get a lassie in her 90s across there. People didn’t give a damn. There were bottles, bricks, smoke everywhere; they just don’t care. I’ve never seen such a disregard for human life. Nice little anarchists, having a nice little party. I hope they rot in hell, because the grief they have caused people, the fear they have put in people’s hearts, decent people who have done nothing to anyone.

I’ve got a girlfriend calling me, terrified, that I can’t get home to. Her seven year old daughter is crying her eyes out because she’s absolutely terrified and these monsters are doing this. I don’t know what they hope to achieve but they have made me so angry.

Some people have been fantastic, trying to get home. Others have been idiots, just standing there looking, looking at this utter, utter carnage and destruction like lemmings. My recommendation is get in your house, look after your family, lock your doors and hope to God."

West Midlands Police are aware of some disorder in Birmingham city centre.
Several premises in the centre have been attacked with some shop windows smashed and property stolen in various locations.

ACC Sharon Rowe said: "We will not tolerate mindless violence and damage anywhere in the West Midlands and are working to ensure that the offenders are identified and caught as soon as possible.

"A policing operation is in place with extra officers in Birmingham to restore calm in the city centre, and protect local people and businesses.

"Our communities have made it clear to us that they do not want this kind of violence in their city and we will continue to work with them to bring anybody who commits acts of crime or anti-social behaviour to justice as soon as possible."
20.30 Bundles of stolen lottery tickets were handed out after being looted from a newsagent on Clarence Road, Hackney, Heidi Blake reports. Rioters were seem using the flames from burning wheelie bins to light cigarettes they had stolen from a looted off license. Bottles of stolen whisky and vodka were being swigged amidst the carnage. As police charged up Clarence Road beating the crowd back with riot shields and battens, scores of rioters scattered into the Pembury Estate where they rearmed themselves with scraps of metal, bottles and bricks.

20.28 Victoria Ward in Peckham sends this picture of a Ladbrokes shop. The windows of Burger King have also been broken. Six police vans and two fire engines have arrived.

More here.