Europe

Europe

Cameron vows to restore order after ’mob rule’

09 August 2011 19:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Prime Minister David Cameron recalled parliament Tuesday and ordered thousands of extra police onto the streets after Britain’s worst rioting in decades left parts of London and other cities in flames, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com webpage.
As the disorder claimed its first fatality, with the death of a man found shot during looting in south London, Cameron vowed to do "everything necessary to restore order to the streets" after three nights of violence.
The prime minister cut short his holiday in Italy to return to Britain for an emergency meeting on the riots and condemned the looting and arson attacks as "sickening scenes".
Police have set up a dedicated website showing CCTV pictures of the looters, many of them in their teens. Some 525 people have been arrested in London in the last three days, including 310 overnight Monday, Scotland Yard said.
Cameron warned the troublemakers: "You will feel the full force of the law. And if you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punishments."
He said that all police leave had been cancelled and there would be 16,000 officers on the streets of London on Tuesday night, compared to the 6,000 deployed on Monday evening.
Police have also urged parents to keep their children at home.
Riots swept through London and in cities including Birmingham and Liverpool, on the third consecutive night of violence which began in the north London district of Tottenham on Saturday following the shooting of local man by police.
The family of the dead man, Mark Duggan, condemned the violence Tuesday, saying in a statement that they were "deeply distressed" by the unrest, which they insisted "has nothing to do with finding out what has happened to Mark".
Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said the rampage by hundreds of hooded youths overnight was "unprecedented" and police resources were stretched "to an extent I have never seen before".
He said that plastic bullets -- used during sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland but never before in mainland Britain -- have been considered as "one of the tactics" to stem the tide of unrest.