Fightback! London's looters stay home as 16,000 police flood the streets ready to use plastic bullets

• Fresh violence flares in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Greater Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Bristol and Gloucester
• Prime Minister David Cameron recalls Parliament on Thursday as Government tries to quell uprising
• 'Unprecedented' 16,000 police on duty in London - compared with just 6,000 on Monday night
• Cost of clean-up expected to run into 'tens of millions'
• 'There are no plans for the Army to get involved,' says police chief
• Police arrest 21-year-old man in connection with fire at Croydon furniture store
• 768 people arrested in total and more than 160 people have been charged
• All police cells in London are now FULL

By Emily Allen, Rob Cooper and David Williams
Last updated at 4:53 AM on 10th August 2011

Fresh violence has flared around the UK tonight as police were braced to use plastic bullets for the first time on the British mainland in a belated bid to reclaim the streets.
After three days of humiliating mob rule, senior officers finally acted to halt the feral thugs responsible for the orgy of violence, arson and looting.
Stung by public outrage and political anger, the Metropolitan Police cancelled all leave and flooded London with 16,000 officers – nearly three times as many as were deployed on Monday night when mobs ran amok – and promised tougher tactics.

Ready and waiting: This group of Metropolitan Police sit outside a shop in Wandsworth, South West London, part of 16,000 officers on duty in the capital last night to quell the riots

Robust: A group of plain clothes officers arrest a suspected rioter in Goldhawk Road, between Shepherds Bush and Chiswick, late last night

Stop and search: Police detain three alleged rioters in Enfield as part of last night's crackdown

However last night there were disturbances in Manchester, where a Miss Selfridges shop was set on fire,  Birmingham, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Nottingham. There was also trouble in Enfield and Eltham in London.
In Salford, youths have smashed shop windows in the shopping centre and have been looting businesses.

Around 20 police officers stood guard around the entrance to Hackney town hall, on Mare Street, in east London, which had to be evacuated this afternoon amid fears of further attacks. Managers decided to shut the Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth, south London, to avoid the risk of looting and violence.

David Cameron, forced to return early from holiday, announced that Parliament would be recalled tomorrow for an emergency debate.

Questioning: A police officer talks to a man as he searches him in Enfield last night

Detained: Three officers arrest a suspected rioter in Enfield last night

On patrol: A group of riot police walk through an East London estate yesterday

The Prime Minister warned those responsible for the ‘sickening scenes of people looting, vandalising, thieving, robbing’ that they would face the ‘full force of the law’.

'You will feel the full force of the law': David Cameron issued a stark warning to rioters and looters as he spoke outside Number 10 yesterday

After chairing a meeting of the Government’s emergency committee Cobra, he said: 'Let me, first of all, completely condemn the scenes that we have seen on our television screens and people have witnessed in their communities.
'These are sickening scenes - scenes of people looting, vandalising, thieving, robbing, scenes of people attacking police officers and even attacking fire crews as they're trying to put out fires. This is criminality, pure and simple, and it has to be confronted and defeated.
'I feel huge sympathy for the families who've suffered, innocent people who've been burned out of their houses and to businesses who have seen their premises smashed, their products looted and their livelihoods potentially ruined.
'I also feel for all those who live in fear because of these appalling scenes that we've seen on the streets of our country. People should be in no doubt that we are on the side of the law-abiding people who are appalled by what has happened in their own communities.
'I am determined, the Government is determined that justice will be done and these people will see the consequences of their actions.
'And I have this very clear message to those people who are responsible for this wrongdoing and criminality: you will feel the full force of the law and if you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishment.'

Prime Minister David Cameron talks to Acting Borough Commander Superintendent Jo Oakley in Croydon

London Mayor Boris Johnson talks with a cleanup volunteer holding a broom during a visit to Clapham where he faced a barrage of criticism

The crackdown in London came as it emerged that:

• A man was critically ill in hospital after being beaten when he remonstrated with looters outside his home in Ealing, West London;
• Children as young as 11 were among 768 people arrested, and 111 police officers have been injured;
• 25,000 emergency calls were made to the Met on Monday night;
• Police issued photographs of looters and troublemakers, appealing to the public to help identify them;
• A 26-year-old man found shot in a car at the height of the riots in Croydon died in hospital;
• TV chef Jamie Oliver, whose Birmingham restaurant and London cooking school were attacked, called for the looters to get a ‘good beating’;
• Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police in Tottenham, triggering the riots, did not fire at police in the moments before he was killed;
• Looters pretending to help an injured young man were filmed stealing the contents of his rucksack;
• Taxpayers face a £200million bill because the little-known 1886 Riot Damages Act allows insurance companies, individuals and businesses to reclaim their losses from police.
• Police have arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of arson with intent to danger life after the fire at the Reeves Furniture Store in Croydon.

Huge swathes of the capital had woken yesterday to the charred debris of burned-out buildings and streets littered with waste after flashpoints in Croydon, Clapham, Notting Hill, Ealing, Hackney, Dalston, Peckham, Woolwich and Lewisham.

Home Secretary Theresa May stressed: ‘This is sheer criminality, and let’s make no bones about it.’
After Monday night’s violence, which spawned copycat disturbances in other cities, including Birmingham and Nottingham, the Met drafted in reinforcements from 26 other forces.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh admitted his officers had never been so stretched, and apologised to Londoners.
As the prospect was raised of plastic bullets being used for the first time on the British mainland, he said that the non-lethal ammunition would be deployed if ‘deemed necessary’.
But he added that the force was ‘not going to throw away 180 years of policing with the community’. Mr Kavanagh continued: ‘London is bloody resilient and it will get through this. We will get through this together.’
Mr Kavanagh said he was sorry 'that London has got to wake up to these scenes'.
'We need to do better for London because those images last night were shocking for everyone,' Mr Kavanagh told reporters.
Water cannon, curfews and the use of troops will be considered if there is a fourth night of violence, while Jankel armoured vehicles were deployed in West and South London.
Last night in Manchester the robust new approach of police was seen as plain-clothed ‘snatch squads’ targeted the ringleaders and dragged looters from shops to make arrests.

Armoured Jankers lines the streets. They will be deployed around the city if trouble escalates

Labour leader Ed Miliband meets with Stafford Blake from Peckham

A mob of more than 200 rioters smashed up the city centre kicking in the windows of stores, stealing goods and vandalising premises.
Where riot police were not able to reach looted shops, the snatch squads moved in with lightning speed.
In one incident, at a Swarovski jewellery store, a team of five officers leapt out of their unmarked car armed with telescopic truncheons to catch two looters in the act of filling their pockets.
One thug tried to make a run for it, smashing through broken glass, but was caught, hurled to the ground and arrested. A second looter was collared in the shop and brought to the ground before being handcuffed and arrested.
As they took the two men into custody, officers were surrounded by a baying mob of 40 thugs, but faced them down.
Birmingham saw its second night of riots, although this time the mob of around 500 was intent on the destruction of cars and shopfronts rather than looting.
In London, every police cell in the capital was full, forcing officers to transport suspects outside the city.
The mayor Boris Johnson faced calls to resign from angry residents as he visited riot-hit Clapham with Home Secretary Theresa May.
Mr Johnson struggled to make himself heard as he said: 'Tonight we are going to have a huge number of police on the streets.'
He added: 'It is time that people who are engaged in looting and violence stopped hearing economic and social justification for what happened.'
The mayor, who was eventually guided away from the crowds and television cameras, followed other leaders by ending his stay abroad to join efforts to quell the violence that has blighted London.

Aftermath: Burnt out buildings in Croydon are doused down following Monday night's rioting

After the storm: Fire crews douse out burnt out buildings on London Road in Croydon following the third night of rioting

The charred shell of Reeves Furniture store in Croydon which was completely destroyed in the huge blaze

The move came despite Mr Johnson's aides previously insisting he could deal with the burgeoning crisis remotely as if 'he was sitting in his office'.
Nick Clegg was also booed on a walkabout in Birmingham city centre before hurriedly being rushed into a waiting car by police and security staff.

Police confirmed that 525 people have now been arrested since rioting began on Saturday and over 100 have been charged.
Last night 44 police officers were injured - four of them seriously - as the capital endured the worst night of violence it has seen for decades. Police said 111 officers have been injured since the violence began on Saturday night.
London Ambulance Service said it took 22 people to hospital from the main areas of the disturbances, although others were treated at the scene or made their own way to accident and emergency departments. Some rioters threw missiles at ambulances or threatened medics as they tried to care for the injured.
Deputy Mayor of London Kit Malthouse told LBC radio: 'Officers were extremely brave. What we are trying to do is maximise the number of police officers we have out again tonight.
'We have something like 6,000 on duty last night. We need to get even more out tonight, and that includes officers from outside London, so we are appealing to other forces to help us where they can.'
Acting Scotland Yard Commissioner Tim Godwin said there had been 'far too many' young people on the capital's streets last night and called on parents and guardians to keep youngsters in tonight.
'We've got the full support of the Government in getting as much mutual aid from outside of London as is necessary and I would like to take this opportunity to remind people of what I said last night as things were escalating.

Arson attack: Smoke rises from the Sony distribution centre in Enfield as frefighters try to bring the blaze under control. The fire started after it was looted

Carnage: The high street close to Clapham Junction was covered in debris after hundreds of people went on the rampage. The Debenhams store, right, was ransacked and looted

'There were far too many young people on the streets of London last night, in places which were both dangerous and violent and I urge all the citizens of London, and the guardians and parents of young people especially, to keep them in tonight.
'We will be very robust in policing any disorder we get tonight.
'This is not just a game. This is criminality, this is burglary, this is violence, and we will pursue each and every one that has been involved in this and we will be making sure they are brought to justice and to court.
'We have a significant investigative asset that's in place.'
The violence was first sparked by the shooting by police of suspected drug dealer Mark Duggan, 29, in Tottenham last Thursday who was carrying a blank-firing handgun converted to fire live bullets when he was killed by a single gunshot to the chest.
This afternoon it emerged he did not fire at officers before he was killed, ballistic tests indicate.

There is 'no evidence' that a handgun found at the scene where Mark Duggan was killed by armed officers was used, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said.
England's friendly international against the Netherlands tomorrow at Wembley has been called off amid fears that it could be targeted.
Meanwhile, last night a young dog found wandering the streets during violent disturbances was saved by a riot police officer.
The scared Staffordshire bull terrier was found by the officer in Hackney, east London, after his night shift.
He took the dog to the Blue Cross animal charity in Merton on his way home.
Staff could not find any identification or microchip, so have nicknamed the dog Blaze.
The Blue Cross has contacted the dog warden and it is hoped the dog's owner will come forward.