Tottenham riot: Residents count cost after night of violence

RESIDENTS of Tottenham surveyed the damage to their community today after a night of rioting and looting following the fatal shooting of a local man by police.

• A smouldering building in Tottenham today. Picture: PA

Eight police officers were being treated in hospital after trouble flared up in north London, last night.

The violence came two days after a man named locally as Mark Duggan, 29, was gunned down by police in the area.

After a peaceful protest by community members demanding "justice", the mood turned nasty and buildings and vehicles were set alight.

Starting about 200 yards from Tottenham Police Station, the riots then spread to other parts of the local area and by the early hours of the morning, crowds of looters were smashing shop windows in a retail park near Tottenham Hale tube station and plundering goods from almost every store.

Teenagers and adults were said to have turned up in cars and filled their boots with stolen items, unimpeded by police.

Others arrived on foot and piled shopping trolleys high with looted televisions and other electronic goods, a woman who has lived locally for 10 years but did not want to be named said.

Local residents today wandered through the wrecked retail park in disbelief, some taking photos of the devastation.