Police Calm London Riots as Unrest Hits Manchester

Police deployed extra forces on the streets of London to prevent a fourth night of unrest amid Britain’s worst rioting since the 1980s. The capital was calm during the evening even as the unrest spread to Manchester, northern England’s biggest city.

London’s Metropolitan Police put 16,000 officers on duty overnight, up from 6,000 the previous evening, when violence flared across the capital. A total of 685 people have been arrested in London since Aug. 8, when the unrest began in the suburb of Tottenham, after a local black man, Mark Duggan, was shot and killed by police who stopped his car intending to make an arrest. The violence has seen gasoline bombs thrown and vehicles, homes and businesses torched.

In Manchester, rioters set fire to a property in Salford, west of the center, and Miss Selfridge, a clothing retailer in the main shopping area, Greater Manchester Police said. Television pictures showed looters running from the Arndale shopping mall, store windows smashed and groups of young people being confronted by officers in riot gear. Police said they made at least 47 arrests, including one man on suspicion of using Facebook Inc.’s social networking site to incite disorder.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-09/police-deployment-calms-london-riots-as-unrest-hits-manchester.html