Six officers fend off over 50 hoodies

A police officer has described how he and only five other officers fended off a gang of up to 50 hooded youths at a retail park.

Pc Gordon Murphy, 30, and five colleagues had only two shields to protect them against the mob trying to loot the stores, in Catford, south-east London, on Monday night.

The officer said: “We were able to create a small barrier at the end of the retail park. As darkness fell, the young people started attacking – they were throwing bricks and bottles at us. Once they had thrown missiles at us they then rushed directly towards us, shouting and screaming.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As the youths ran forward, the officers charged towards them.

“The mad thing is, they all ran back so we didn’t even have to make contact with them,” Pc Murphy said. “We just showed a show of strength, with our shields and our batons drawn, shouting as loud as we could: ‘get back’ and a few other war cries and the kids ran back across the road and continued throwing things at us.”

They defended the park for about 30 minutes until back-up arrived. Team manager at Currys, Ridwan Haibe, said: “They did a fantastic job.”