Last night there was rioting in Woolwich which culminated in arson attacks on a number of buildings. Surprisingly, there are still a lot of people in the surrounding area who aren’t aware of this, mainly due to the lack of coverage in the mainstream media; Twitter however gave rise to an increasingly heartbreaking series of images during the night, starting from around 8pm, and ending up with those showing the buildings around General Gordon Square in flames. The fire brigade were still fighting major blazes in Woolwich at 3am.
This video shows young people chasing riot police away from General Gordon Square down Thomas Street just after 10pm last night.
Some of the photos posted on Twitter showing the burning police car on New Road, the looting on Powis Street, and the arson attack on the Great Harry Pub.
The twitter reports that are used here came from a number of sources, including mister mercer, jelvesie (who captured the footage above), and dontcallmedick, among others. Although the police have suggested that people shouldn’t observe the riots, there was no press coverage, so citizen reporters were the only source of local info on this terrible night.
The leader of the council has made a statement, in it he restates his commitment to regenerating Woolwich, which has been going well, and this was discussed recently. The leader also insists that he will help the shopkeepers in affected areas, and hold the perpetrators to account.
update 10/8 – here’s a film of the cleanup from yesterday
Do you know if there is a community clean up planned??
the cleanup did happen on the morning after, although much of the area was sealed off. now it’s important to go to the town centre and to support the shopkeepers.