London’s Burning

Smashed shop front in Walthamstow High Street

As I woke this morning to find that the Tottenham riots had arrived on my doorstep, I worried about what might unfold this evening. I had no idea that things would escalate in quite the way that they have done. It’s half past one in the morning and I’m literally watching live images my city going up in flames. Twitter streams are overflowing with information and it’s hard to keep up with everything that is going on. We’re being told to stay indoors to stay safe, or just to keep out of the way of police who are doing their best to patrol the streets.

If you’re anywhere that’s being affected by this, please take care. If you feel like sharing what you see or hear, or even just how you feel, please tag your Audioboos with #londonriots or #birminghamriots (etc). I’ll try to collect some of them here.

This one is just heartbreaking – can you imagine watching your livelihood, your family business, your heritage burning before your eyes?

Personally I’m feeling angry and quite helpless. I want people to stop destroying my city.

What about you? Where are you and do you feel safe? Do you have a message for London? What can we do to fix this? Let us know.

UPDATE: The BBC World Service’s Leana Hosea spoke to two looters in Croydon this morning. They were in high-spirits as they drank rose wine and celebrated the “fun” they’d had overnight. You’ll understand why this piece of audio is rapidly going viral on Twitter when you hear it.

Please keep your updates coming in. We know that there is a huge volunteer operation to clean up after the riots – we’d love to hear what’s going on in your area. #riotcleanup is the tag that’s been used on Twitter. Add that to the #londonriot tag on your Audioboos and don’t forget to enable geolocation (in settings on the app) or put a marker on the map if you record online. We’re putting together a map of your #londonriots Audioboos.

#londonriots, audioboo, London, news, riots

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