THE SMELL of burning filled the streets of Tottenham this afternoon as firefighters battled to put out smouldering buildings after last night's riot.

Onlookers stood at police cordons watching as officers patrolled High Road – littered with bricks, bottles and shattered glass – to restore order after the disorder which left 26 police officers injured.

Jermaine Thomas was one of those looking on from the balcony of his flat at the junction of Lordship Lane and High Road as smoke poured from the opposite Allied Carpets building, which was torched by rioters.

He said: “No matter what happened last week – there's just no need for this.

“It was crazy – there were all sorts of people looting from the shops and throwing stuff about – why?”

The violence came two days after a man named locally as Mark Duggan, 29, was gunned down by police in the area.

After a peaceful protest by community members demanding "justice", the mood turned nasty and buildings and vehicles were set alight, while hundreds of people looted shops in the Tottenham Hale retail park.

One witness, who asked not to be named, questioned why it took police so long to bring the disorder under control.

He said: “The police seemed to take hours after the violence started – what took them so long?

“And then they were too busy dealing with the riots on the High Road while loads of people robbed stuff from PC World and Argos in Tottenham Hale.”

Police reports say that only two members of the public were injured, but eyewitnesses said they saw many people being carried away from the rioting covered in blood.