Rioting spreads North to Manchester and the Midlands

Youths set fire to a branch of fashion store Miss Selfridge in Manchester city centre, and hundreds of rioters rampaged through the streets, leading to running battles with riot police.

Greater Manchester Police said officers were engaged in outbreaks of disorder in the city centre and Salford. Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney vowed: “We will not allow such mindless criminal damage and wanton violence to go unpunished.”

Sporadic looting broke out across the city centre, with gangs playing cat-and-mouse with riot police. Officers in vans chased large groups of youths wearing ski masks and hoods.

West Midlands Police said they were dealing with sporadic disorder in Wolverhampton and the arson of two vehicles in nearby West Bromwich.

In Nottingham, a police station was firebombed by a gang of 30 to 40 men.

Canning Circus police station was attacked by the group but no injuries were reported, Nottinghamshire Police said.

The force said a number of men were detained nearby.

In London, several arrests were reported in the Canning Town area after the Metropolitan Police, who have been accused of losing control of parts of the capital, flooded the streets with 16,000 officers, nearly three times as many as were on duty during Monday night’s disorder.

Thirty other forces, including North Yorkshire, Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria, sent officers to bolster the numbers in an effort to put a stop to the scenes witnessed across the country since Saturday.

Scotland Yard ruled out involving the Army for now but said police were “not scared”

of using plastic bullets to bring the unprecedented riots under control.

North Yorkshire Police said they were deploying extra officers across the county over the next 24 hours to reassure residents, as well as sending officers to help in London.

Police Authority chairwoman Jane Kenyon said: “North Yorkshire Police have mobilised some resources to aid other parts of the country, but I have to emphasise that they remain fully able to deal with any similar outbreak in our area and indeed with dayto- day policing needs.”

Cleveland Police’s temporary assistant chief constable, Adrian Roberts, said: “There is nothing to suggest that there will be any problems in Cleveland.

“However, we have appropriate resources in place to robustly deal with any issues that may arise.”

Steve Matthews, chairman of the Cleveland Branch of the Police Federation, said the officers sent to London were highly trained, and described them as “British policing at its best”.

But he added: “While we have been able to assist this time, if the cuts to officer numbers continue we may not have the resilience in the very near future to be able to mount this sort of national mutual aid.”

Durham Chief Constable Jon Stoddart said: “Our response takes account of the need to minimise any impact on policing the communities of County Durham and Darlington.”

None of the forces revealed the number of officers sent to the capital.

The violence first erupted in Tottenham, north London, on Saturday night after a peaceful protest over the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, last Thursday.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed yesterday that there was no evidence that Mr Duggan fired at officers before he was shot in the chest.

Mr Duggan’s family said they were “deeply distressed”

by the disorder across the country that has followed his death.

Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday in Tuscany to return yesterday to take charge of efforts to quell the rioting, and pledged to speed up court procedures to deal with the “many more”

arrests expected as police scour hundreds of hours of security camera footage. He also recalled Parliament for a day tomorrow.

Hundreds of people were arrested after Monday night’s rioting, which spread to cities across England, including Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol.

A 26-year-old man who was shot in a car during riots in Croydon, south London, died in hospital.

Three people were held on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer, who was injured by a car while trying to stop looters in Brent, north-west London.

A total of 111 Met officers and five police dogs have been injured in the violence after being attacked with bricks, bottles and planks.

So far, Scotland Yard has made 563 arrests over the three nights of rioting and charged 105 people with offences ranging from burglary to possessing offensive weapons.

The Met described Monday night’s violence as the worst it had seen “in current memory”

for “unacceptable levels of widespread looting, fires and disorder”.

Shops across the capital began closing from lunchtime yesterday in response to police warnings and rumours that rioters were planning a series of attacks.

The town hall in Hackney, east London – an area badly hit by disorder on Monday – was shut in the afternoon over fears of further violence.

Public anger about the authorities’ response to the rioting spilled over as politicians tried to show they were listening to victims of the attacks.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, who flew back from holiday on Monday, faced a barrage of criticism from angry residents as he toured riot-hit Clapham, in south London, with Home Secretary Theresa May.

One woman told the mayor to resign and another complained there was no one to defend her when a brick was thrown through the window of the salon she was in.

Mr Johnson told the frustrated crowds: “I know there are questions about the police response and police numbers.

We are certainly going to be dealing with those.”

Meanwhile, youths booed and shouted “go home” as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg toured Birmingham city centre.

Acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner Tim Godwin called for every special constable to report for duty and warned the rioters that they faced arrest and prosecution.

“This is not just a game.

This is criminality, this is burglary, this is violence, and we will pursue each and every one that has been involved in this and we will be making sure they are brought to justice and to court,” he said.

Scotland Yard launched a webpage to show images of people wanted over the disturbances at met.police.uk/ rioterswanted.

Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt said courts and prisons were being kept open to deal with people who are charged over the riots.

“A number of prisons and courts are being kept open on a 24-hour basis to deal with people arrested and charged over these disturbances,” he said.

“The criminal justice system will provide all necessary support to the police to ensure anyone involved in this kind of criminal activity is brought to justice as swiftly as possible.”

The riots led to a series of domestic football matches being called off, including Carling Cup ties at West Ham, Charlton, Crystal Palace and Bristol City.

In an exceptional move, the Football Association announced that tonight’s friendly between England and Holland at Wembley Stadium had also been called off.

Bert van Oostveen, chief executive of Dutch football federation the KNVB, said: “The police in London could not guarantee the safety of our players and our supporters.”

The Premier League and Football League will make a decision about weekend matches in London tomorrow after consultations with the police.

A statement from the leagues said: “With the information currently available to us there is no reason to think any matches outside of London will be affected.”