A Second Night of Riots Breaks Out In London

London is plagued with a second night of unrest after the Tottenham riots.

There has been a second night of rioting and looting in areas of North London. The rioting and looting Sunday was on a much smaller scale than the riots in Tottenham Saturday night. The riots seem to be orchestrated bouts of chaos organized by teenagers, the Guardian reports. There were some minor disturbances in the early evening that were calmed by police, but then groups of as many as 200 started advancing in certain areas. The police had anticipated the attacks via intelligence gathered over social media. Riot police were out in the streets as early as 7 p.m. local time. The Guardian has a live blog of everything that went down in Enfield and Brixton, the two areas hit the hardest, over the course of the evening.

Pieced together from tweets and dispatches from reporters on the scene, this seems to be what happened. There was a street festival in Brixton Sunday evening so there was already thousands of people around the area, which brought out a heavy police presence. Early disturbances in Enfield and rumors of trouble coming in the evening picked up over social media brought out vans of riot police early. Around 8 p.m. a group of 200 young people gathered around an Enfield train station. They started marching towards a jewelry store and started looting. The Guardian's Paul Lewis was on the scene.

There must have been more than 20 who smashed a jewellery store and entered. They scarpered less than a minute later, when riot police charged in. There were chaotic scenes as the crowd was charged by police striking with batons. Around 20 dog handlers were on the scene. "Get back. You'll get bitten. Get back." In the melee I saw bystanders get hit.

In Brixton there were reports of police in riot gear handling two groups of men throwing bottles at each other, a witness in the area told the Guardian. A 20 year woman in Enfield, in tears, yelled at the groups looting, "What are you doing? Is this how you pay your respects to Mark? Is this what he would have wanted?"

Teenagers in Enfield were reportedly "breaking down walls on terraced streets to collect bricks to throw at police." Reinforcements were called shortly after and riot police began flooding the area, according to Paul Lewis:

At 9.30pm, Met police and reinforcements from Kent began turning the whole of Enfield town into a sterile area. Hundreds of riot police flooded the area with vans and police dogs, charging at groups of teenagers who melted into side-streets.

Rioters were reportedly throwing bricks at cars and businesses as the ran through different areas. Rioting in Brixton didn't escalate until just before midnight. Andrew Hough of the Daily Telegraph tweeted, "At least 200 youths pelting stones + bottles @ police. Businesses told to shut up shop." Looting started in the area without any police intervention, according to the Guardian. A Footlocker was broken into and eventually set on fire. An electronics store in Brixton was broken into, and eventually police stepped in. "I can see three people struggling with a massive flat screen TV. Others walking laden down with smaller boxes," Hough tweeted. 

 

The Guardian is reporting that youth in the area planned the attacks. Police knew as far in advance as 2 p.m. that there would be trouble in the area, though they have no explanation as to why. A resident in Enfield was told by a police officer in the afternoon to be careful that evening, and that St. Andrews Road in Enfield would be the "front-line" of disturbances Sunday night.