London Riots 2011: Cameron Deploys 16,000 Police to Curb the Spread of the Unrest

British Prime Minister David Cameron will deploy 16,000 police officers on Tuesday, almost tripling the current number, to help quell the London riots.

Cameron cut short a vacation in Italy to return to London where he called for an emergency parliamentary session on Tuesday where he made the announcement after three nights of fire and looting in the capital and other British cities.It is believed that gangs of youths, some masked, are the ones looting shops, setting businesses ablaze and clashing with police in neighborhoods across London.

The first riot broke out in Tottenham on Saturday, where protestors clashed with police outside a station, as they were demanding justice for the Thursday shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan after police stopped a minicab he was driving in.

Since then, the riot has spread to at least six other parts of London to include the cities of Liverpool and Birmingham by Monday night.

Reuters has reported that politicians and police blamed the London riots, which is the worst in decades, on criminals and opportunistic hooligans. However, residents in the affected areas and some commentators paint a different picture and have attributed the unrest to local tensions and anger over economic hardship in a city where there is a growing gap between the haves and have-nots.

Social media such as Twitter have been helping to increase the number of rioters, who have been reported to be using the tool as a means to disclose meeting points, overwhelming the London Metropolitan Police, which have already deployed some 6,000 riot police to the hot areas.

"This is criminality pure and simple," Cameron told reporters outside his Downing Street office. "People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain's streets." 

Though he upped the manpower, Cameron stopped short of sending in the army or deploying water cannons against the rioters.

More than 450 arrests have been made since the start of the riots on Saturday and authorities have said the prisons in London were already reaching capacity. The newly detained are being shuttled to jails outside the capital, according to the Washington Post.

British leaders will be back in parliament on Thursday for more riot discussions.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was the first leader from the West to praise the Libyan people. He also paid tribute to the UK's armed forces.

REUTERS/Toby Melville: Police officers in riot gear drag a man along a street in Hackney in London.

Fire destroys a Sony warehouse in Enfield in north London August 9, 2011. Sony Corp said on Tuesday that the warehouse in north London has caught fire, damaging compact disks, DVDs and other content products. A Sony spokeswoman said no injuries were reported from the fire in Enfield, also the site of scattered incidents on Sunday evening as riots spread from the deprived London neighbourhood of Tottenham over the fatal shooting of a man by armed police.

A street cleaner hoses down the street around burned out mini cars set alight during riots in Hackney in London Aug. 9, 2011.

Men look at a burnt out car after disturbances in the Handsworth area of in Birmingham, central England August 9, 2011.

A cyclist passes a smouldering van burned and set alight during riots in Hackney in London August 9, 2011.

A man walks past burned out cars set alight during riots in Hackney in London August 9, 2011.

A street cleaner hoses down the street around burned out mini cars set alight during riots in Hackney in London August 9, 2011.

A street cleaner sweeps up around a smouldering van set alight during riots in Hackney in London August 9, 2011.

A boy looks at a burned out vehicle in Ealing in west London August 9, 2011.

Pedestrians pass burned out vehicles in Ealing in west London August 9, 2011.

A police officer in riot gear stands in front of a burning car on a street in Hackney, east London August 8, 2011. Youths hurled missiles at police in northeast London on Monday as violence broke out in the British capital for a third night.

Firemen continue to dowse down buildings set alight during riots in Tottenham in north London August 7, 2011. London braced on Sunday for more violence after some of the worst riots seen in the British capital for years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over hardship. Rioters throwing petrol bombs rampaged overnight through an economically deprived district, setting police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus on fire.

Police officers in riot gear block a road near a burning car on a street in Hackney, east London August 8, 2011. Youths hurled missiles at police in northeast London on Monday as violence broke out in the British capital for a third night.

Looters rampage through a convenience store in Hackney, east London August 8, 2011. Youths hurled missiles at police in northeast London on Monday as violence broke out in the British capital for a third night.

Cars burn on a street in Ealing, London Aug. 9, 2011. Looting by groups of hooded youths spread to Ealing in west London and Camden in the north of the British capital late on Monday, the third night of violence which police have blamed on criminal thugs.

A fierce blaze guts a store after looters rampaged through a shopping mall in Woolwich, southeast London, August 9, 2011. Rioting and looting spread across and beyond London on Monday as hooded youths set fire to cars and buildings, smashed shop windows and hurled bottles and stones at police in a third night of violence in Britain's worst unrest in decades.