London has witnessed a cautious calm on Tuesday night, as the unrest spread across northern cities.

London has witnessed a cautious calm on Tuesday night, as the unrest spread across northern cities.

Thousands of extra police officers flooded into the capital Wednesday in a bid to end Britain's worst rioting in a generation. Armored vehicles and convoys of police vans patrolled London streets, with authorities said there would be 16,000 officers on duty – almost triple the number present Monday. They also said a large presence would remain in the city through the next 24 hours at least.

Police across the country have made more than 1,100 arrests since the violence broke out over the weekend. 

Central Manchester and Salford saw serious looting and disorder as gangs waged running battles with police, ransacking dozens of shops. Similar, if less widespread, trouble flared in Birmingham and elsewhere in the West Midlands.

Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester police said Manchester and Salford had been badly damaged. "These are pure and simple criminals running wild tonight," Shewan said.
"They have nothing to protest against. There has been no spark. This has been senseless on a scale I have never witnessed before in my career."

Rioting started in London in the wake of shooting a black man, Mark Duggan, 26, who then died at the hospital.
Armed officers in Ferry Lane in Tottenham shot Duggan last Thursday, after police stopped the minicab he was in to carry out an arrest as part of a pre-planned operation.

INQUIRY CONFIRMS DUGGAN'S DEATH AT POLICE HAND 

An inquiry into his death armed police officers killed the father of four with a single gunshot to the chest.
Investigations confirmed that Duggan's death came after two shots were fired by a Scotland Yard CO19 firearms officer.

The Deputy Senior investigator for  the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), Colin Sparrow, told the brief hearing thatit could take the commission four to six months to carry out its "complex investigation" into Duggan's killing.

The coroner for the northern district of Greater London, Andrew Walker, adjourned the hearing until 12 December, when a pre-inquest review will be held.

The family of Duggan said they were angered by the lack of information they received, and that their ordeal sparked tensions immediately before Saturday's protest in Tottenham.

But the incident appeared to have a wider impact on a public angered by the government's failure to help them through bad economic situation.