Retailers hit by third night of rioting

Electrical stores, mobile phone shops and sportswear retailers bore the worst of the attacks, but virtually no major retailer was left unscathed.

On his twitter feed, Dixons operations director Seb James wrote on Twitter “Grim night. All our people safe though scary for team trapped in store for a while. 23 stores affected yesterday. I anticipate a very strong reaction tonight from police - badly needed - plus we will send a detailed update later today to colleagues.”

Stores were targeted right across the capital. These are some of the more reliable reports:

• In Clapham Junction, stores including Debenhams, JD Sports and Boots were ransacked
• 150 year old Croydon furniture store Reeves was razed to the ground in an arson attack
• The town centres in areas including Ealing and Peckham were attacked. In Peckham branches of Morrisons, Blue Inc and Greggs were among those affected.
• Retail parks in Woolwich and Colliers Wood were looted
• In Camden, Evans Cycles was looted as were 3 and Orange mobile phone shops

Both independent and multiple retailers were badly affected. There was also widespread unrest in other cities, notably Birmingham, where Harvey Nichols general manager Kevin Breese stayed in his store through the night.

“Still at work and city seems calm,” he tweeted at around 5am. “Mass damage to our city of Birmingham and lessons and actions now need to be addressed today” There was rioting around the Bullring and, according to Breese on twitter, the Mailbox was attacked and “Armani gone”.