Worst Manchester riots in 30 years

Outside of London, chaos continued to spread.

In the northwestern city of Manchester, hundreds of youths rampaged through the city center, hurling bottles and stones at police and vandalizing stores. A women's clothing store on the city's main shopping street was set ablaze, along with a disused library in nearby Salford. Looters targeted stores selling designer clothes and expensive consumer electronics.Manchester's assistant chief constable Garry Shewan said looting and arson had taken place there on an unprecedented scale, but appeared to have little motive. About 50 people were arrested there.

"We want to make it absolutely clear they have nothing to protest against. There is nothing in a sense of injustice and there has been no spark that has led to this," he said.

In the central England city of Nottingham, police said rioters hurled firebombs though the window of a police station, and set fire to a school and a vehicle outside a second police station — but there were no reports of injuries. A total of 90 people were arrested in attacks on stores, a college, a community center and cars.

Neither Manchester nor Nottingham had previously been involved in unrest. There also were minor clashes for the first time in the central England locations of Leicester, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich, and the western city of Gloucester — where police and firefighters tackled a blaze and disturbance in the city's Brunswick district.

The rioting and looting that hit Manchester was an act of "senseless violence and senseless criminality" on a scale not witnessed in 30 years, a senior police officer said Tuesday.

The violence, committed by people with "nothing to protest against", has brought "shame on the streets" of the city, Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester Police said.

"These are pure and simple criminals running wild tonight," said Shewan.

"They have nothing to protest against there has been no spark. This has been senseless violence and senseless criminality on a scale I have never witnessed before."

Shewan, who joined the force after moving to the city in 1981, said the violence had ripped the "heart out of two great cities" and appealed to the public to "think very carefully about who they support" when the operation to catch the looters begins.

"We have extensive CCTV of all the activity that has gone on tonight. We have made it absolutely clear that as early as tomorrow morning we will be coming to make arrests," he added.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed that 47 arrests had been made in Manchester and Salford as sporadic fires burned across the area.

Hundreds of masked youths tore through the centre of Britain's third-largest city, going on a looting spree as the worst riots for decades spread beyond London.

The youths smashed shop windows and went looting, setting fire to shops and hurling missiles at police.

Councillor Pat Karney, city centre spokesman for Manchester City Council said it was "one of the worst days in Manchester's history."

"People in Manchester and Salford are very angry about what has been done to this city and their city centres in Manchester and Salford," he said.

About 230 people were arrested after two days of violence in Birmingham — where police were investigating reports of shots fired in a restive inner-city neighborhood. "Officers are on the scene but there have been no injuries reported," the city's police department said in a statement.

In the northern city of Liverpool, about 200 youths hurled missiles at police and firefighters in a second night of unrest, and about 40 were arrested.

A total of 111 officers and 14 members of the public have been hurt so far in the rioting, including a man in his 60s who was attacked as he attempted to put out a fire started by members of a mob.

Police said the injured man had been tackling a blaze in a garbage bin, when he was set upon by several rioters. "It was quite a grave assault and his condition is causing us some concern," said police commander Simon Foy.

The unrest has been Britain's worst since race riots set London ablaze in the 1980s. London's beleaguered police force noted that it had received more than 20,000 emergency calls on Monday — four times the normal number. Scotland Yard has called in reinforcements from around the country and asked all volunteer special constables to report for duty.

A soccer match scheduled for Wednesday between England and the Netherlands at London's Wembley stadium was canceled to free up police officers for riot duty. Britain's soccer authorities said they were in talks with police to see whether this weekend's season-opening matches of the Premier League could still go ahead in London.

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