Riots that erupted in London neighborhoods over the weekend spread to four other cities yesterday, as hundreds were arrested and at least one person was killed. What began as a protest against the police shooting of Tottenham resident Mark Duggan spread quickly into general rioting and opportunistic looting -- what Prime Minister David Cameron has called "criminality pure and simple." For three days now, buildings and vehicles have been smashed and set on fire, while stores and warehouses were looted. Police have been unable to do much to slow the mayhem. Tonight, some 16,000 police officers will be deployed to London's streets in an effort to quash the worst unrest in the city in decades. Collected here are images of the violence in the U.K. from the past several days.
A hooded youth walks past a burning vehicle in Hackney on August 8, 2011 in London, England. Disturbances broke out late on Saturday night in Tottenham and the surrounding area after the killing of Mark Duggan, 29 and a father-of-four, by armed police in an attempted arrest on August 4.#
Buildings burn on Tottenham High Road, London after youths protested against the killing of a man by armed police in an attempted arrest, August 6, 2011 in London, England.#
Police officers wearing riot gear walk past a burning building in Tottenham, north London, on August 7, 2011. Crowds attacked riot police and set two squad cars alight in north London on Saturday following a protest at the fatal shooting of a man by armed officers earlier in the week.#
Riot police face a mob in Hackney, north London on August 8, 2011. Riot police faced off with youths in fresh violence in London today in the third day of disorder after some of the worst rioting in the British capital in years at the weekend.#
A riot police officer directs his colleagues to clear people away from a burning car in Clarence Road in Hackney on August 8, 2011 in London, England.#
Looters rampage through a convenience store in Hackney, east London August 8, 2011. Youths hurled missiles at police in northeast London on Monday as violence broke out in the British capital for a third night.#
Looters run from a clothing store in Peckham, London August 8, 2011. Riots spread to new areas of London on Monday while looting also erupted in the city of Birmingham as Britain's worst unrest in decades escalated in a third night of violence.#
A car burns on a street in Ealing, London, on August 9, 2011. Looting by groups of hooded youths spread to Ealing in west London and Camden in the north of the British capital late on Monday, the third night of violence which police have blamed on criminal thugs.#
A traffic cone is embedded in the smashed windows of the Arcadia shopping center on Ealing Broadway following a night of rioting in Ealing, on August 9, 2011 in London, England.#
People who have volunteered to clean up the damaged streets in a show of solidarity clean the remains of a burnt-out car on a street in Hackney, London, on Tuesday, August 9, 2011, following unrest on late Monday.#
A Pride parade in Bangkok, platform diving in Boston Harbor, a deadly train collision in India, flooding after a dam breach in Ukraine, smoky skies over New York City, and much more
A diving championship in England, Darth Vader on trial in Chile, Manhattanhenge in New York City, a graduation ceremony at West Point, ongoing floods in northern Italy, and much more
