LONDON: The wave of violence and looting raged across London and
spread to three other major British cities Tuesday, as authorities
struggled to contain the country’s worst unrest since race riots set
the capital ablaze in the 1980s.
In London, groups of young
people rampaged for a third straight night, setting buildings, vehicles
and garbage dumps alight, looting stores and pelting police officers
with bottles and fireworks. The spreading disorder was an unwelcome
warning of the possibility of violence during London’s 2012 Summer
Olympics, less than a year away.
Police called in hundreds of
reinforcements and made a rare decision to deploy armored vehicles in
some of the worst-hit districts but still struggled to keep pace with
the chaos unfolding at flashpoints across London, in the central city
of Birmingham, the western city of Bristol and the northwestern city of
Liverpool.
The riots appeared to have little unifying cause
though some involved claimed to oppose sharp government spending cuts,
which will slash welfare payments and cut tens of thousands of public
sector jobs through 2015.
The crisis will be a major test of
Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative led coalition government,
which includes Liberal Democrats who had long suspected its program of
harsh budget restraints could provoke popular dissent. Cameron cut
short his summer vacation in Italy, rushing home for a crisis meeting
Tuesday. Cameron was expected to toughen the police response. Britain’s
Home Secretary Theresa May refused to outline what that might entail,
but seemed to rule out more drastic measures. Online
