For five nights , CNN and the world watched as riots spread across UK cities . The police were called in to restore order Looters roamed the streets , emboldened by lack of arrests as hours wore on . ' We drove north into central London , seeing shops smashed on Tottenham Court Road , and then into Camden -- the bohemia of cool -- suddenly awash with gangs of masked teenagers without a policeman in sight . I was as scared in Peckham as I 've ever been in Afghanistan , Libya or the Ivory Coast '
For five nights , CNN and the world watched as riots spread across UK cities . The police were called in to restore order Looters roamed the streets , emboldened by lack of arrests as hours wore on . ' I was as scared in Peckham as I 've ever been in Afghanistan , Libya or the Ivory Coast '