London - AFP
A young British man has died of wounds he sustained in a shooting spree in London during unprecedented rioting that rocked Britain, media reports said. The 26-year-old victim died after being admitted to hospital, police said, adding that a murder hunt has been lunched. The victim was spotted in a car suffering from gunshot wounds at about 9.15pm as trouble flared in Croydon, south London on Monday night. Meanwhile, a shopkeeper blamed police for the damage to property she was inflicted as she was waiting for officers to come to the scene of her looted couture clothes store. Giselle Asante, 57, said she was alerted to looters targeting her shop at 1am but police had still not arrived at the scene by 9am. The shop had been ransacked, with custom-made clothes stolen. "Riot police had formed a line down the road and there were a few police on the other side of the people that kicked in the door and they did nothing. A tenant upstairs was terrified”, said her daughter, Jan Asante. "We called the police early this morning but they told us they were too busy and said they would meet us here at 8am. However, they just called and said they don't know when they will make it down”, she added. "The thing that really hurt is that we got no warning from the police at all", said Jan Asante. Giselle complained that police have appeared incapable of even touching the people who were looting someone's property. "We are paying £6,000 in business rates each year for highway maintenance and use of the fire service and police but they didn't even stop people who were looting in front of them", she said. Smoldering parts of London resembled a war zone on Tuesday after a third night of violence with shops looted, century-old businesses burned to the ground and streets littered with barricades. Hooded and masked youths ransacked shops and burned cars and buildings in districts ranging from the leafy western suburb of Ealing to the gritty inner-city districts of Peckham and Hackney.