David Cameron, the British prime minister, has returned to London to head crisis talks after three nights of riots, looting and arson that have caused widespread damage in many parts of London and spread to other major cities.
Cameron, who had been on holiday in Italy, will chair a meeting of the high-level COBRA crisis committee on Tuesday, his office said.
More than 500 people have been arrested as a consequence of the riots which
escalated on Monday night, two days after a police station was attacked in the north London area of Tottenham following protests over the fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man, Mark Duggan, by armed police.
There were also incidences of looting and rioting in the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol on Monday.
"There are pretty tough questions confronting the politicians, said Tim Friend, Al Jazeera's correspondent in London. "It will be concerning police and politicians greatly. Whether what's happening outside London has anything to do with the shooting [of Mark Duggan], is doubtful at the moment."
Government officials have branded the rioters criminals and said the violence would have no effect on preparations for the 2012 London Olympic Games - though television images of blazing buildings and rioting were likely to dent the capital's image.
"It was needless, opportunistic theft and violence, nothing more, nothing less. It is completely unacceptable," said Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, after visiting Tottenham on Monday.
He said the government stood "side by side with those people in those communities who utterly condemn the violence and the theft".
The administrators of a Facebook page, created in memory of Mark Duggan, posted this message: "Please we ask for this violence to stop. This isn't about Mark, it never was. His family never wanted nor thought any of this would happen.
"You people are using this as an excuse. If you had any respect, you would stop this before they bring in the Army, the whole world is looking."
'Strong police response'
Reacting to the looting and violence spreading across the country, Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour party, posted on his Twitter account: "Shocked by scenes in parts of London and Birmingham. We need strong police response to restore calm and for communities to work together."
Some activists and opposition politicians suggested that government spending cuts had driven disadvantaged and unemployed youths to violence.
But Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said that was "complete nonsense".
"These riots are about vandalism. To the best of my knowledge, we talked about cuts but most of them have not bitten yet. If Labour politicians really believe that, let’s have a list of cuts that they think justified people turning to violence."
Others including David Lammy and Diane Abbott, MPs for the affected areas of Tottenham and Hackney, rejected the idea that the government's austerity drive should be blamed for the riots.
"Cuts don’t turn you into a thief. What we saw was people thieving for hours," Abbott said.
Chukka Umunna, another Labour MP, said the violence in London was "totally opportunistic and utterly unacceptable".
"I think we have got to be very careful about seeking to draw general conclusions from a series of events around London to make some kind of historical judgment about what is going on," he added.
Cameron has resisted calls to slow the rate at which he is cutting the budget deficit in order to lessen the impact on youth services and other facilities. But he is likely to face new pressure to do more for poor districts of the capital.
Source : http://english.aljazeera.net
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