Suella Braverman has called for those who took part in a suspected raid of shops on London’s Oxford Street and subsequent scuffles with the police to be “hunted down”.
Footage showed police wielding batons in clashes with dozens of young men and teenagers, and officers on horseback trying to disperse watching crowds on Europe’s busiest shopping street on Wednesday.
West End stores were forced to lower their shutters and lock customers inside during the incident, which appeared to be sparked by a widely shared post on TikTok calling on people to take part in a “Oxford Circus JD robbery”.
The Metropolitan police arrested nine people and issued 34 dispersal orders.
The home secretary said on Twitter: “We cannot allow the kind of lawlessness seen in some American cities to come to the streets of the UK. The police have my full backing to do whatever necessary to ensure public order.”
She added: “Those responsible must be hunted down & locked up. I expect nothing less from the metpoliceuk and have requested a full incident report.”
A Met spokesperson said on Wednesday evening: “As of 20.15hrs officers have arrested 34 people with dispersal orders and made nine arrests.
“Four people were arrested on suspicion of breaching the dispersal order, one person was arrested on suspicion of going equipped to steal, one person arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, and one person was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence.
“Earlier in the afternoon, officers arrested two people in Essex for conspiracy to commit robbery following online social media posts.”
Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, the TikTok “prankster” known as Mizzy, claimed on Twitter he had been stopped and searched on Oxford Street for “no reason” and issued with a dispersal order, saying in a video that he had had “nothing to do” with the raid.
Video purported to show four police officers speaking to him on Oxford Street on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier on Wednesday, the force had warned that a heavy police presence would be deployed in the area after “online speculation” about opportunities to commit crime there, while the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, urged people not to take part and decried “nonsense” circulating on TikTok.
