London riots
Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:06 am
Fires started after Tottenham police shooting protest
Petrol bombs have been thrown at police and two patrol cars, a bus and buildings have been set on fire in a disturbance in Tottenham, north London.
The incident began after a protest over the fatal shooting of a young man by police on Thursday turned violent.
About 300 people have gathered outside the police station on the High Road.
Members of the community had taken to the streets to demand "justice" after the shooting of 29-year-old father-of-four Mark Duggan.
The BBC's Ben Ando, who is at the scene, described the situation as a "stand off" between police and protesters and said firefighters had come under attack.
Two patrol cars were set alight at about 20:20 BST but officers were not inside at the time.
Shops in the area have also been looted with people seen pushing away shopping trolleys full of goods.
A double decker bus was set on fire at the junction of High Road and Brook Street while a shop on the High Road has also been set alight.
Fire crews were initially unable to reach the shop due to the disorder but have now begun tackling the flames.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said a large crowd had assembled, but not all of the people on the streets were involved in the disorder.
Commander Stephen Watson told BBC News a significant number of officers had been deployed to the area with the aim of restoring "calm and normality to the area as soon as possible".
Tottenham MP David Lammy appealed for calm saying: "The scenes currently taking place in our community are not representative of the vast majority of people in Tottenham.
"Those who remember the destructive conflicts of the past will be determined not to go back to them.
"We already have one grieving family in our community and further violence will not heal that pain.
"True justice can only follow a thorough investigation of the facts.
"The Tottenham community and Mark Duggan's family and friends need to understand what happened on Thursday evening when Mark lost his life. To understand those facts, we must have calm."
Protesters are believed to have gathered outside the police station at about 17:00 BST.
The force said the situation turned violent when two patrol cars parked about 200 metres away on Forster Road and High Road were attacked.
The spokesman said: "A number of bottles were thrown at these two cars - one was set alight and the second was pushed into the middle of the High Road. It was subsequently set slight.
"The officers were not in the vehicles and were unhurt."
Vanessa Robinson said she had joined the original protest outside the police station and it had begun peacefully.
She said the situation had now turned into "absolute chaos".
One person at the scene, who gave his name as Tim, said: "It's an absolute war zone. I walked up there.
"I saw about five youths, all faces covered up. They set a wheelie bin on fire and threw it into the riot police.
"The whole of the police station is surrounded by... about 100 police officers in riot gear and they threw a wheelie bin into it and then started throwing bricks, street signs, anything they could get their hands on, straight at them."
Another resident, David Akinsanya, 46, said several shop windows had been smashed.
"It's really bad," he said. "There are two police cars on fire. I'm feeling unsafe. It looks like it's going to get very tasty. I saw a guy getting attacked.
He added: "There was a police line of about 15 riot police sort of in front of the police station on the north side and then there were loads of uniformed officers on the south side of the police station.
"They weren't making any effort to go into the crowd. Every now and again they would rush the crowd and the crowd would run.
"But there seems to be a lot of anger in Tottenham tonight... as I left they were starting to attack the police station.
"Obviously they've got the toughened glass so the missiles weren't going through."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the shooting of Mr Duggan.
A police officer was also injured in the incident, which happened when police stopped a minicab containing Mr Duggan.
It is thought the officer, who was taken to hospital and later discharged, was shot first but this is not known for certain, an IPCC spokesman said.
The Met said a handgun was found at the scene and a bullet was later found embedded in a police radio.
IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said: "I understand the distress that the shooting of Mark Duggan has caused to his family and in the community and that people need answers about what happened to him."
She said the IPCC was in close contact with Mr Duggan's family, adding: "I have tonight spoken to community representatives and hope to meet with them and others as early as possible."
Ms Cerfontyne said they were still gathering evidence and expected to release further details "as soon as we can".
A spokesman for Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "Violence and destruction of property will do nothing to facilitate [the IPCC] investigation and we urge those involved to respect the rule of law."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14434318
