caught up in the disturbances sweeping London. The Splash festival had passed off without any major problems and and as several thousand revellers began to disperse the atmosphere remained overwhelmingly friendly and calm. But that changed rapidly a few hours later when a couple of hundred young people -- some with masks or scarves, others with hoods pulled down over their faces -- gathered and began pelting the police with stones and bottles. The situation and atmosphere changed very quickly and there were reports from some witnesses that the group had arrived together on buses and in cars, but I can not confirm this. Police appeared unprepared for the clashes and over the next three hours shops along the High Street were smashed and looted. Men, women and teenagers helped themselves to goods and cash from H&M, Vodafone, McDonalds and T-Mobile, while a major fire took hold in Footlocker. People were carrying armfuls of clothes and shoes and passing them to friends in cars, carrying them away balanced precariously on the back of scooters or on foot. Although the police had gathered in a nearby side street they did not intervene for more than an hour. At about 12.30, as it began to rain heavily, the police started to push people back up the High Street. But by that stage the majority of the crowd had made its way to a large branch of Currys half a mile out of the centre of Brixton. Over the next few hours the