BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to do everything necessary to restore order following a wave of riots in London and other UK cities.
In a statement outside his Downing Street residence, Mr Cameron said: "This is criminality pure and simple and it has to be confronted and defeated."The Prime Minister said 16,000 police officers would be on duty in London later today (local time), far more than on previous nights, and he promised that rioters would be brought to justice.
Mr Cameron broke off a family vacation in Italy to return to London, where he chaired a meeting of the Government's emergency COBRA team and met with police.
He confirmed that parliament, which is on summer recess, would be recalled for a day on Thursday so that he could make a statement and allow lawmakers to discuss the violence.
Today three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder as police struggle to contain riots across Britain.
However the Metropolitan Police said there had been 334 arrests since Saturday, with 69 people charged and two cautioned.
In unprecedented scenes of rioting in London, buildings were in flames in Croydon, Peckham and Lewisham in the city's south, while gangs of looters roamed the streets of Hackney in the east, Clapham in the south, Camden in the north and Ealing in the west.
The sporadic outbreaks of violence, which have been particularly difficult for police to control, followed a weekend that saw a dozen suburbs in the capital hit by chaos in the streets.
One officer was in a hospital in a stable condition, and the other suffered a minor injury, according to a Metropolitan Police statement.
"It is believed the injury occurred when police stopped some cars as their occupants were suspected of being involved in looting of a nearby electrical store," a police spokesman said.
"It is believed the driver of one of the cars drove away injuring the police officer in the process. Three people were later stopped by police and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder."
Scotland Yard said it had deployed an extra 1700 officers to deal with the London unrest, the worst in years.
Some London residents told Sky News of gangs of rioters attempting to break into their houses late last night (local time).
"I looked out the window and there was a horde of people outside," one resident in west London said.
"They actually tried to break into our house. They had a long pole which they were using to try to break down the door. One of them looked like he had a bottle, which I thought may have been a petrol bomb, and I was worried they might try to set the house on fire ... It was very frightening."
As the city reeled from the escalating public disorder, the violence spread as far as Birmingham - England's second largest city - in the Midlands, Liverpool in the northwest, and Bristol, the biggest city in the southwest.
In Birmingham, some 100 people were arrested after shop windows were reportedly smashed, property was stolen and a police station, which is not permanently manned, was set on fire.
Video footage broadcast by Sky News showed rioters charging police and throwing missiles in Liverpool, while police said around 150 rioters had rampaged through Bristol's city centre.
Meanwhile, authorities denied reports of rioting in Manchester after the BBC said there had been "minor disturbances".
British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his Tuscan holiday to chair emergency meetings.
With less than a year to go until London hosts the Olympics, the city resembled a war zone.
Police were caught off guard and emergency services stretched by the rapidly expanding violence that has reportedly been organised on social networks including Twitter and Blackberry messenger.
In an emergency statement, The Met's acting commissioner Tim Godwin urged parents to get their children off the streets.
"I do urge now that parents start contacting their children and asking where their children are," he said.
"There are far too many spectators who are getting in the way of the police operation to tackle criminal thuggery and burglary."
The bulk of the violence began on Saturday in Tottenham, north London, after 29-year old local man Mark Duggan was fatally shot by police on Thursday.
Mr Duggan's death stirred old animosities and racial tensions which prompted riots in the 1980s.
Tottenham was the scene of severe rioting on the Broadwater Farm housing estate in 1985 when police constable Keith Blakelock was hacked to death.
The latest riots did not seem to be fuelled by a need for justice or revenge.
"All they want is a free TV or a new pair of running shoes. They're just taking whatever they fancy. These people are evil," one East London witness said.
As the unrest spread, some pointed to rising social tensions in Britain as the Government slashes STG80 billion ($A129.0 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the huge deficit, swollen after the country spent billions bailing out its foundering banks.
Police acknowledged that major new bouts of violence had flared in at least five locations, badly stretching their resources.
"The violence we have seen is simply inexcusable. Ordinary people have had their lives turned upside down by this mindless thuggery," police commander Christine Jones said.
