British PM David Cameron inspects damage in south of capita

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the site of a building that was destroyed by fire in a third night of rioting in the UK capital.

The House of Reeves in Croydon, south London, was a local landmark furniture store run by the Reeves family for decades.

It was torched overnight during the wave of violence and looting that has raged across London since Saturday.

Cameron met police at the site who explained what had happened.

Cameron described the scenes of burning buildings and smashed windows in London and several other British cities as "sickening," but refrained from more extreme measures such as calling in the military to help beleaguered police restore order.

Instead the Prime Minister, who cut short his holiday to fly in to the capital, recalled Parliament from its summer recess Tuesday and nearly tripled the number of police on the streets.

Violence in London first broke out late on Saturday in the low-income, multiethnic northern district of Tottenham, where protesters demonstrated against the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in disputed circumstances Thursday.

Duggan's death stirred old animosities and racial tensions similar to those that prompted massive UK race riots in the 1980s, despite efforts by London police to build better relations with the city's ethnic communities.

Some 525 arrests have been made in London alone and dozens were arrested in other cities. AGENCIES