London cops say last night 'worst' in memory

London:  Widespread looting, several incidents of fire and disorder during the riots in London made last night the "worst" in "current memory" for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

The MPS said today that it responded with the largest policing operation of the three nights to date - approximately 2,500 officers in addition to the 3,500 already on boroughs.
    
This included receiving aid from other forces and using armoured vehicles to support officers on the ground to clear areas of trouble, the MPS said in a statement.
    
A significant number of arrests were made - well over 200 overnight, in excess of 450 over the three nights.

    
The statement said, "Those involved in criminality should be under no illusion that we will pursue you. We have been making arrests all evening and have a team working during the night examining CCTV images. We will follow up evidence in the coming days in order to bring anyone else responsible for criminal acts to justice".
    
Disturbing levels of violence were directed at police officers again, it said, and added that over the last 24 hours it had taken almost 400 per cent more emergency calls than normal.