London Rioters Burn, Loot Through Night

Riots rocked London last night and into this morning leaving eight police officers injured as crowds threw rocks, burned buildings and cars, and looted area shops over a police shooting Thursday, reports the BBC. The violence followed peaceful protests around 5pm, when 300 people gathered at a Tottenham police station in north London, calling for "justice. But the protests changed dramatically around 8pm when some demonstrators lit two nearby police cars on fire.

Shortly after midnight, the area was "completely lawless," according to the Twitter feed of one New York Times reporter. "It's an absolute war zone," said one witness. " The whole of the police station is surrounded by... about 100 police officers in riot gear and they threw a wheelie bin into it and then started throwing bricks, street signs, anything they could get their hands on, straight at them." As the night wore on, the riot grew worse, with a carpet store burned and a mall looted. Tottenham, a poor, minority-filled area of north London, was similarly rocked by riots on the same date in 1985. (More London stories.)