News that shaped 2011

UK riots

When police shot North Londoner Mark Duggan in early August, a peaceful march held in Tottenham turned sour as people took part in the worst street riots since Brixton in 1981.

Civil unrest spread through London like wildfire as youths in other areas took to BlackBerry messenger and social networks to arrange the rioting. Four days of violence saw 16,000 police officers deployed across London to quell the disturbances. Five lives were

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UK riots

When police shot North Londoner Mark Duggan in early August, a peaceful march held in Tottenham turned sour as people took part in the worst street riots since Brixton in 1981.

Civil unrest spread through London like wildfire as youths in other areas took to BlackBerry messenger and social networks to arrange the rioting. Four days of violence saw 16,000 police officers deployed across London to quell the disturbances. Five lives were claimed during the disorder, fires raged across the capital, people lost their homes and livelihoods, businesses and offices were shut early in fear that they would be ransacked.

On Monday 9 August – tipped to be the worst night of violence – as a heavy police presence remained in the capital, copycat rioting spread to towns and cities across Britain. Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Salford all witnessed with similar disturbances.

Amongst all the terror caused by the rioters, people pulled together and turned out to volunteer in clean-up campaigns. Armed with brooms, binbags and rubber gloves, Mancunians and Londoners got stuck in helping clean up the damage caused by the rioters. In an emergency meeting chaired by David Cameron warned that: “Justice will be done and these people will see the consequences of their actions.”

So far, more than 3,000 people have been arrested and over six hundred sentenced.

Latest news on the riots

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