Le Hai, who now lives in London, wrote to Saigon Tiep Thi newspaper to tell about the ongoing riots in the UK capital and his feelings.
Hundreds of thugs ran riots across the city, setting buildings and vehicles on fire, destroying and looting shops with police apparently powerless to stop them during the past three days of disorder and violence following peaceful demonstrations in the Tottenham city over the weekend.
Sporadic violence has broken out everywhere including residential areas of Vietnamese community like Hackney, Lewisham, and Croydon.
A Vietnamese-owned jewelry shop, NGO Diamonds, was attacked and robbed by rioters. The plunders have also spread out to several cities in the country’s central region like Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol.
Hai said all football matches have been postponed and the English friendly football-match against the Netherlands at the national stadium Wembley is off too as the government is upping efforts to control the so-called worst riot in the country’s history.
Hai said the plunders could be divided into three stages. The first stage is gangs and criminals destroying shops followed by loots when rioters unashamedly walked into shops and left with flat-screen TVs, branded sport shoes, or cell phones under their arms or other electronic goods. Finally, some criminals confronted and attacked police.
All these plunders were filmed by SkyNews reporters with their cell phones and broadcast on TV afterwards.
Robbing gangs often target jewelry and luxurious shops where they could pocket a lot of money, He said.
Police across the country have arrested more than 1,100 since the violence broke out over the weekend, according to AP.
Despite heavy presence on some streets, police appeared unable to contain the violence as rioters who had initially coordinated through mobile phones and Twitter became increasingly confident, Reuters said.
Hai wrote to the newspaper that many people told him they had a feeling they are living in a war-torn developing country than an industrialized country like England.
Many UK newspapers described the scenes as “lawless”.
However, besides the Ngo Diamonds jewelry shop, other Vietnamese shops have not been attacked, said Vu Khanh Thanh, former representative of Hackney borough.
“Vietnamese expats live in harmony with other communities from other countries, so their businesses are not affected by the violence except the Ngo Diamonds shop,” said Thanh.
In the mean time, Bui Duc Minh, first secretary at the Vietnamese embassy in London, told Tuoi Tre over telephone that some Vietnamese shops have been attacked but so far there have been no reports of human casualties among the Vietnamese community in London.
Minh advised Vietnamese expats to lock their doors and stay inside.
“We would like to warn Vietnamese expats that they have to frequently update news about the riots and contact the embassy if facing troubles and should stay away from affected areas,” Minh stressed.
If Vietnamese expats need any assistance or help from the embassy, don’t hesitate to contact 020-756 52214/79384625 or cell phone number: 078 94904858, he added.
Reuters quoted some commentators as saying the disturbances have been described as a cry for help from poor areas reeling from the government's harsh austerity cuts to tackle a big budget deficit, which has led to steep cuts in youth services and other facilities.
Violence broke out in Tottenham on August 6 following a peaceful demonstration to protest the police’s shooting of a man one week earlier and have spread to other areas throughout London as well as to Birmingham, England’s second biggest city.
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