The article dares not state the rioters were black youths who used social media to organise their looting and violence in response to the death of a black gangster shot by police after the gangster fired at police. (See a more candid description)
RIOTERS have gone on the rampage in North London, torching police cars, a bus and a shop amid widespread looting following a protest over the fatal shooting of a man by armed officers.
Eight London police officers are in hospital after being injured during the riot, Scotland Yard said yesterday.
The patrol cars and the double-decker bus were set ablaze as hundreds ran amok outside the police station on the High Road in Tottenham on Saturday night. Under a hail of missiles, riot officers and mounted police battled to regain control of the streets as fire crews tackled the burning building.
Rioters kicked in windows as shops were looted, with people seen pushing away shopping trolleys full of stolen goods.
Central London has seen student and trade union protests turn ugly in recent months but this outbreak of rioting is the worst seen in years in the suburbs.
The unrest followed a march to the district's police station in protest over the shooting dead of a minicab passenger by police on Thursday in an apparent exchange of gunfire. The passenger, a 29-year-old father-of-four named as Mark Duggan, died at the scene. An officer may have had a lucky escape in the incident, with a police radio found to have a bullet lodged in it.
Saturday night's disorder started with the torching of two patrol cars about 200m from the police station. The cars' officers were conducting traffic patrols on foot.
"A number of bottles were thrown at these two cars," a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said. "One was set alight and the second was pushed into the middle of the High Road. It was subsequently set alight."
Tottenham is best known for its English Premier League football club, Tottenham Hotspur. — Aqence France-Presse