‘Stretched beyond belief’: Met police braces for more violence
By Alex Stevenson Follow @alex__stevenson
There will be 13,000 police officers on duty in London tonight, as the Metropolitan police face unprecedented levels of disorder across the capital.
One senior officer said the Met was "stretched beyond belief" as it struggles to cope with violence across the city.
The Met is receiving reinforcements from nine other police forces, as well as British Transport police and City of London police, but it is far from clear the extra numbers will be sufficient to contain more rioting expected tonight.
"It was the sheer scale and speed with which the attacks took place across London last night that was truly unprecedented," deputy assistant commissioner Stephen Kavanagh told BBC1's Breakfast programme.
"From Harrow in the north through to Croydon in the south, East Ham in the east to Ealing in the west, there were multiple fast-acting groups and the Met was "stretched beyond belief in a way that it has never experienced before".
The police are considering using more extreme tactics to control marauding mobs.
In Lavender Hill, the Metropolitan police used armoured police vehicles to push back over 150 people, bringing the area under control.
The tactic's success means it is now being considered elsewhere as required, the Met said.
"We are using tactics flexibly to respond to the disorder we are still seeing in different areas of the capital," Commander Christine Jones said.
"Anyone involved in criminality should be under no illusion that we will pursue you."
Despite stretched resources there were over 200 arrests last night, with CCTV examinations taking place during the night. There were a further 100 arrests in Birmingham.
Former Scotland Yard commander Roy Ramm warned that the Met could lose control of London's streets.
"That has to be a possibility and the home secretary and [Met] commissioner are going to have to make some difficult decisions," the Express newspaper quoted him as saying.
