MPS commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, above left during a raid on a property in Sutton, said of the latest arrests: ‘These are violent people taking to the streets under the guise of protest to engage in disorder’

TEN more people accused of being involved in racist disorder in Whitehall were arrested in a series of raids.

Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley joined officers for a publicity photo-shoot at one of the locations in south London yesterday, Thursday.

The Metropolitan Police Service said offences committed in Whitehall on July 31 included violent disorder, assaults on police officers, possession of knives and offensive weapons and breach of protest conditions. Bottles, flares, and other objects were thrown at officers during street brawls that followed the July 29 stabbings of three girls in Southport.

One hundred arrests were made that day.

The commissioner said yesterday: “Over the last week dozens of officers have continued to investigate the violent disorder which broke out in Whitehall last Wednesday.

“They scoured thousands of hours of footage from body-worn video, CCTV, and social media to identify those responsible for fuelling and committing the thuggish and violent behaviour we saw.

“Their efforts have resulted in a series of crucial arrests last night and in the early hours of this morning.

“What I want to make really clear is that those we’ve arrested aren’t protesters, patriots or decent citizens. They’re thugs and criminals. Around 70 per cent have previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offences. Some have football banning orders.

“These are violent people taking to the streets under the guise of protest to engage in disorder.”

The update came after a second round of rioting was knocked back by huge anti-racist protests across the country.

Locations expected to be targeted by nationalist protesters were surrounded by hundreds of people, organised by the Stand Up to Racism group. The police had said that 1,300 public order officers were on duty in London.

There had also been a series of stories in the media about heavy sentences handed out to people involved in riots elsewhere in the country.

One man was jailed for three years after handing himself in to police and admitting he was “a fool” and “absolutely ashamed of the way I had behaved”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier, the commissioner said: “I’m really pleased with how it went.

“We put thousands of officers on the streets and I think the show of force from the police and frankly the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we’ve seen. It went off very peacefully last night.

“[There were] a couple of locations where some local criminals turned out and tried to create a bit of anti-social behaviour and we arrested a few of them, but it was a very successful night and the fears of some sort of extreme-right disorder were abated.”