Britain's worst riots in decades raged into the fourth day yesterday as youths ran amok in Manchester and the industrial Midlands.
However, London was quiet with 16,000 police swamping the streets to stem violence.
In Manchester, Britain's third-largest city, youths smashed shop windows and looted shops and chased photographers away from the scene in what police described as the city's worst violence in 30 years.
Elsewhere, hooded rioters set fire to buildings in West Bromwich and Wolverhampton in central England and a police station in nearby Nottingham was firebombed. No injuries were reported.
Looters also targeted shops in the second city of Birmingham for another night and 200 rioters pelted police with missiles in the northwest city of Liverpool as the nation faced up to a fourth day of unrest.
Scotland Yard said early yesterday that 768 people had been arrested in London for violence, disorder and looting.
But in London there was no repeat of the wave of violence which left parts of the capital in flames on Monday night, as vigilante mobs took to the streets to defend their communities.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday that a "fightback" was underway after four nights of rioting, adding that more robust policing had calmed the situation in London overnight.
"We needed a fightback and a fightback is underway," Cameron told a news conference outside 10 Downing Street.
Cameron said "nothing is off the table" in the new measures to take on the rioters.
"While they are not currently needed, we now have in place contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours' notice," he said.
British police were also already authorised to use "baton rounds" of plastic bullets, Cameron said.
The prime minister revealed that police were in the process of arresting suspects based on CCTV images.
"We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets," Cameron said.
Police were bracing for more trouble after what they said was the worst night of disorder in living memory in the British capital, and their numbers were ramped up from 6,000 to 16,000 on Tuesday night as Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to do "everything necessary to restore order to the streets".
Shops in many parts of London closed early and put down their shutters on the advice of the police.
The focus of Tuesday's violence was Manchester in northwest England, where police were driven back by gangs of hundreds of youths who covered their faces with scarves and ski masks.
There were similar scenes in Birmingham, and in the neighbouring town of Wolverhampton where youths clashed with riot police brandishing shields.
In London, hundreds of Sikhs camped out overnight Wednesday to defend the community of Southall in the capital's west.
The group, some dressed in traditional clothing, organised motorcycle patrols and monitored the train station for troublemakers.
In a development which will do nothing to calm tensions, Britain's police watchdog said it found no evidence that Mark Duggan -- whose shooting by police last week was the catalyst for the riots in London -- had fired a gun at officers.
In a pre-planned operation, armed officers stopped the taxi in which Duggan, 29, was travelling in the multi-ethnic district of Tottenham in north London. Shots were fired and Duggan died at the scene.
Duggan's family said they were "completely gutted" by the findings and called for "answers" from the police.
The violence has raised questions about security ahead of the 2012 London Olympic Games, and it prompted the cancellation of Wednesday's friendly between England and the Netherlands at Wembley Stadium.
Source : The Daily Star
