The rioting that trembled London over the weekend has spread to at least eight new districts on Monday and Tuesday, including cities of Liverpool and Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city.
The rioting, which has turned out to be the worst outburst of social unrest in Britain in 25 years, has touched several other cities, including Nottingham and Bristol. It has also engulfed three towns in the county of Kent, located in southeast of the capital, New York Times reported.
According to police and the British media, it's a "copycat riot", in which masked youth began looting retail shops in the center of the city. They also attacked the new Bullring shopping complex.
Police said that there were a "number of isolated outbreaks of disorder" in Liverpool that includes the familiar trademarks of the London rioters, namely burning cars and broken windows.
According to news reports, there was a dramatic rise in household burglaries on Tuesday. Due to the upsurge, two major soccer matches in London - including an international match between England and Holland - were likely to be postponed, sports authorities said.
On Saturday, some angry citizens of Tottenham marched to police headquarters to protest the shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. The incident led to the rioting and looting, which later spread to Hackney, Peckham and Lewisham on Monday afternoon. By nightfall, it reached reached the neighborhoods of Ealing, Camden and Croydon by nightfall.
Reports said that at least 215 people have been arrested in London so far, while at least 27 have been charged. Over 35 police officers have been injured.
A riot policeman advances past a burning building in Croydon, south London August 8, 2011. Rioting and looting spread across London on Monday as hooded youths set buildings and cars ablaze, smashed shop windows and hurled bottles and stones at police in a third night of violence in Britain's worst unrest in decades.REUTERS/Dylan MartinezFire destroys a Sony warehouse in Enfield in north London Aug. 9, 2011. REUTERS/Luke MacGregorA 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.REUTERS/Jon BoyleCars 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.REUTERS/Toby MelvillePolice officers in riot gear drag a man along a street in Hackney, east London August 8, 2011. Government officials branded rioters who fought police, looted shops and set fire to buildings at the weekend as opportunistic criminals and said the violence, the worst in London for years, would not affect preparations for next summer's Olympic Games.REUTERS/Toby MelvilleLooters run from a clothing store in Peckham, London August 8, 2011. Rioting and looting spread across London on Monday as hooded youths set buildings and cars ablaze, smashed shop windows and hurled bottles and stones at police in a third night of violence in Britain's worst unrest in decades.REUTERS/Dylan MartinezRiot police charge past burning buildings on a residential street in Croydon, south London August 8, 2011. Rioting and looting spread across London on Monday as hooded youths set buildings and cars ablaze, smashed shop windows and hurled bottles and stones at police in a third night of violence in Britain's worst unrest in decades.REUTERS/Dylan Martinez