A rumoured police attack on a 16-year-old girl has been widely blamed for starting the riot in Tottenham on Saturday night.
Witnesses claimed that the teenage girl, whose identity has not been confirmed, threw a stone at a line of officers. She was then allegedly knocked to the ground.
Commander Adrian Hanstock said of the incident at a press conference: “We are still looking into that. There are conflicting responses to what that incident was. We want to concentrate on the scene, getting the area back to normal.”
A caller told the BBC: “What actually ignited it is a young female had approached the police standing line and she was set upon by police with their batons.
“The police line actually charged towards her and hit her with their batons. Subsequently it turned out she was only 16 and it absolutely made everyone go up in uproar.
“She just approached the police and said the community demanded answers and justice must prevail and questions needed answering.
"Hundreds of people who had congregated since the evening have then charged the police and shops were getting burned down.”
London riots spread from Tottenham to Brixton
Whether or not a girl was attacked, the rumour spread through the crowd and then reached the rest of the world via mobile phones and the internet.
Footage recorded on a mobile phone sprung up on YouTube last night, that appeared to show a clash between a protester and riot police. Onlookers are heard shouting: “it’s a girl.”
Around 500 people were involved in Saturday night’s carnage, which was heavily covered on Twitter, with a picture of a burning police car being re-Tweeted over a hundred times.
The police made at least 55 arrests and at least 26 officers were injured in the riots on Saturday night, one badly to the head.
Karen Lee, 35, a housing association worker and Tottenham resident, said “People came out for a peaceful protest – it was legitimate at first. Then last night this rumour went around about this girl, a 16-year-old innocent girl who had been hit by police.
“It is only hearsay at the moment and unless there’s CCTV or she comes forward, we may never know whether it actually happened. It upset everyone and they lost the plot and started to do whatever they wanted.”
