Riots in England continue for a fourth night

Rioting continued to spread throughout England last night, with reports of violence in Manchester. Birmingham, Liverpool and Nottingham also suffered a second night of disorder, with three confirmed fatalities in Birmingham. In the capital, the extra ten thousand police brought into the city on Tuesday kept the city relatively under control, with no major violence reported.

A Miss Selfridge shop in Manchester was set ablaze as gangs of rioters looted from and trashed shops in the city center. In Nottingham, police arrested over 90 people during incidents that included attacks on three police stations with petrol bombs.

In Birmingham, arrests were made as gangs attempted to break into shopping centers. In the early hours it was reported that shots had been fired upon police, and that three British Asian men had been killed in a hit-and-run attack whilst protecting their business from looting.

Prime Minister David Cameron has authorised the use of water cannons to control the riots, at 24 hours notice, and has reiterated the fact that police have legal authority to employ baton-rounds if required. However, Sir Hugh Orde, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, has ruled out the deployment of water cannons for the foreseeable future, as "these are fast-moving crowds, where water cannon would not be appropriate."

Meanwhile, a community-organized cleanup operation has been mobilised through social media websites like Facebook and Twitter.