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16:29 GMT
LONDON, Aug 9 (KUNA) -- London mayor Boris Johnson faced a barrage of
criticism Tuesday from angry residents as he toured the devastation in
riot-hit Clapham with Home Secretary Theresa May.
Johnson, who flew back from his summer holiday early today, as the violence
escalated across the capital, said: "I want to say to everybody who runs a
shop or owns a business here how very sorry I am for the loss and the damage
you have suffered.
"I also want to say to the people who have been involved in instigating
these riots and those who have been robbing and stealing that they will be
caught, they will be apprehended and they will face punishments they will
bitterly regret," adding "I know there are questions about the police response
and police numbers. We are certainly going to be dealing with those."
Mrs May was led away by aides as a visibly-stunned Johnson faced the
television cameras and public wrath.
One woman told him: "I was in a salon when a brick came through the window
and no one was here to defend me."
Another woman shouted at the mayor, urging him to resign.
Johnson struggled to make himself heard as he said: "Tonight we are going
to have a huge number of police on the streets."
He added: "It is time that people who are engaged in looting and violence
stopped hearing economic and social justification for what happened."
The mayor, who was eventually guided away from the crowds and television
cameras, followed other leaders by ending his stay abroad to join efforts to
quell the violence that has blighted London.
The move came despite Johnson's aides previously insisting he could deal
with the burgeoning crisis remotely as if "he was sitting in his office".
Johnson arrived at a cordon outside Clapham Junction station where members
of the public gathered.
He was greeted by the sight of a burnt-out fancy dress shop being hosed
down by firefighters, surrounded by litter strewn on the streets and smashed
windows.
Crowds of people armed with brooms waited for permission to enter the
cordon, which covered St John's Hill and Lavender Hill, to start a clean-up
operation - a movement started on Twitter.
The mayor walked the length of devastated streets, past window after window
of shops that were smashed in the riots last night.
Johnson received a mixed reaction veering from almost carnival spirit to
anger and rage.
He managed to turn ill-feeling to positive at one point by taking hold of a
broom and thanking crowds for turning out.
Johnson paid tribute to the army of volunteers hoping to sweep Clapham's
streets.
He said: "Thank you very much to everybody who has come here to clear up
the mess.
"That is the spirit of London."
When asked by one angry resident why he had not come home from his holiday
earlier, the mayor replied: "I came as fast as I could."
He said police had been overstretched but that same situation would not
happen again. Johnson told the crowd: "It's time we heard a little bit less
about the sociological justifications for what is in my view nothing less than
wanton criminality.
He told waiting media: "I do not want to see a repetition of the events of
last night. "It's time for London and the majority of innocent law-abiding
Londoners to reclaim their streets.
"In 2012, next year, we are going to be welcoming the world to our city and
it's a great city, it's a peaceful and fundamentally safe city and when they
come they will find one of the safest big cities.
"We have time in the next 12 months to rebuild, to repair the damage that
has been done, to rebuild these buildings that have been destroyed.
"I'm not saying it will be done overnight, but this is what we are going to
do."
The mayor blamed the situation on a "mental contagion" taking over youths'
minds. "And when it does stop they will regret bitterly what they have done."
Home Secretary Theresa May, during the same visit to Clapham as Johnson,
said: "This is pure criminality, all this looting, thieving and rioting.
"What we are doing tonight is putting on double the number of police, but
crucially we are arresting the people who are perpetrating crime."
She said those who had committed crimes would be identified using CCTV images
which will be released, and then brought to justice. (end)
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