Government crackdown

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced tough new measures in an emergency parliament session Thursday to crack down on rioters who tore through London and other English cities for four days earlier this week.

"The fightback has well and truly begun," Cameron told parliament. "You will pay for what you have done," he added, addressing the individuals responsible for the unrest.

Cameron has given police new powers to demand the removal of face masks or other coverings, if their wearers were suspected of crime. He has also refused to rule out the use of the army, if necessary, and said the government was looking at banning social media access for potential troublemakers.

"We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality," said Cameron.

He pledged to maintain a heightened police presence on the streets of London "throughout the weekend" after it was initially boosted earlier this week from 6,000 to 16,000.

Cameron said he would not allow a "culture of fear to exist on the streets." He acknowledged, however, that police tactics at the beginning of the unrest had been flawed.

"There were simply far too few police deployed on to the streets," Cameron said. "And the tactics they were using weren't working."

British cities enjoyed a night of relative quiet on Wednesday in the wake of some of the worst looting and violence in a generation. Bad weather and the boosted police presence are thought to have brought calm to some of the worst hit cities including London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Mass arrests

More than 1,200 people have been arrested so far and police were searching CCTV footage to identify further perpetrators. Courts in several cities remained open through Wednesday night to deal with hundreds of suspected rioters and looters.

"This is not about poverty, it's about culture," said Cameron. "A culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities."

The opposition Labour Party, however, has accused the Cameron government's deep budget cuts for leaving public authorities unprepared for the widespread unrest.

"The scale of government cuts is making it harder for the police to do their jobs and keep us safe," said Yvette Cooper, Labour's home affairs spokeswoman.

As cities across the country assess the damage inflicted by the unrest, Cameron also outlined victim support schemes, including a 20 million-pound (22.8 million-euro) government fund to help shop owners recover from the damage done by arson and looting.

Unprecedented unrest

The rioting claimed a fifth fatality on Friday morning, police said, after a 68-year-old man, who was attacked during the unrest, succumbed to his injuries in hospital. Richard Mannington Bowes had been found unconscious late Monday in the west London suburb of Ealing.

Police said a murder inquiry had been launched into what they described as "the senseless killing of an innocent man."

On Tuesday, three men were killed by a speeding car in Birmingham and another man died in a hospital in south London from a gunshot wound to the head. Three suspects - aged 16, 17 and 26 - have been arrested in connection with the deaths in Birmingham.

"Blacks, Asians, whites, we all live in the same community," Tariq Jahan, whose son was one of the three Muslim men killed in Birmingham, told the news agency Reuters. "Why do we have to kill one another?"

"Step forward if you want to lose your sons," Jahan said. "Otherwise calm down and go home, please."

A protest on Saturday over the death of a man who was shot last week by police in Tottenham, north London, sparked the initial riots, which spread across the country days later.

Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill, Spencer Kimball (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Nicole Goebel