A cleanup operation is under way across London after the third and worst night of violence resulted in widespread damage across the capital, with unrest spreading to cities around the UK.
Buildings were set ablaze, businesses ransacked; overstretched officers were pelted with petrol bombs, bricks and other makeshift missiles. Normally peaceful streets were laid waste as rioting flashed around the city. A man died after being shot in Croydon, south London.
At times the police appeared overwhelmed by the sheer number of incidents – which began with serious rioting in Hackney and spread to the south London neighborurhoods of Peckham, Lewisham, Colliers Wood and Croydon, where a 100-year-old furniture store was torched.
There was trouble too in the relatively well-off west London suburb of Ealing, and even sporadic outbreaks of violence in Notting Hill, where diners a Michelin-starred restaurant barricaded themselves in the wine cellar to avoid an attack.
Disturbances continued apace throughout the night and spread outside London for the first time with riots reported in Birmingham, Bristol andLiverpool.
In north London, Guardian video journalist John Domokos found Turkish shopkeepers defending their premises against attack.
Via http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/09/london-riots-day-three-roundup
