Why is London Burning?

London riots: Violence erupts for third day
Community activist Sharon Grant: "Stay off the streets... enough is enough"

Riot police have again been deployed to the streets of London as violence broke out for a third day.

There have been skirmishes between police and rioters in Hackney, Peckham and Lewisham.

It follows two nights of violence over the weekend following the police shooting of a man in Tottenham.

London's mayor Boris Johnson is cutting short his holiday to return to the capital as more than 200 people have been arrested and 35 officers injured.

Home Secretary Theresa May also returned early from holiday to meet Acting Metropolitan Police (Met) Commissioner Tim Godwin and other senior officers.

Tottenham riots: police let gangs run riot and loot
Britain’s biggest police force is facing criticism after it let looters run riot in north London for almost 12 hours, in some of the worst scenes of street disturbances seen in recent years.

10:00PM BST 07 Aug 2011 The Metropolitan Police said it was focused on containing violent disorder in Tottenham on Saturday night, which left dozens of officers injured and saw squad cars, shops and flats burned to the ground.
But its tactics meant gangs of youths were free to break into stores at nearby Tottenham Hale retail park and in Wood Green, with looters forming an orderly queue in broad daylight to steal from a sports shop.
Riot police did not intervene to stop the looting in some areas until 7.30am the following morning, almost 12 hours after the riots began, and last night there were fresh disturbances in Enfield.

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