London vigil walkers call for peace as violence spreads

London, August 9 (ENInews)--With the smell of smoke and wail of sirens in
the background, about 200 to 300 people from a range of faiths on the
evening of 8 August gathered for a prayer and a walk to the center of Tottenham,
north London, scarred by a weekend of rioting.

Called a "Vigil of Hope," the walk took place in an atmosphere of
escalating violence in London and other cities in Britain. A 26-year-old man was
reported killed in Croydon, south of London and hundreds have been arrested
as business and shops were burned and looted in a third day of violence.
Prime Minister David Cameron recalled Parliament and vowed to put an
additional 10,000 police officers on the streets to quell outbreaks in London,
Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol.

In Tottenham, where the unrest began on Saturday after a peaceful protest
against the killing of 29-year-old Mark Duggan last week by police, the
Rev. Valentin Dedji of St. Mark's Methodist Church said it was difficult to
get to the site of the vigil. "Most of the roads around here were blocked,
but people managed to get here. I came on my bicycle. We prayed first of all
in Holy Trinity Anglican Church for two hours. Then we walked together to
the High Road. The family of Mark Duggan didn't come. They were too afraid.
We prayed for them," he said in a phone interview.