Iran Calls on Britain to Avoid Violence against Protesters

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran on Tuesday called on London to avoid violent confrontation with the protesters as riots continued in Britain over the killing of a young man in London.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast urged the British police to exercise restraint against protesters.

Mehman-Parast asked the British government to start dialogue with the protesters and to listen to their demands in order to calm the situation down.

He also called on the independent human rights organizations to investigate the killing in order to protect the civil rights and civil liberties.

Tensions remained high in Tottenham following the shooting on Thursday of 29-year-old Mark Duggan, which sparked the first riots in London.

The unrest began on Saturday when a few hundred people gathered outside a police station in Tottenham to protest against the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan on Thursday.

Meantime, violence escalated across London and spread to three other major British cities, as authorities struggle to contain the country's most serious unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s.

In unprecedented scenes of rioting in London, buildings were in flames in Croydon, Peckham and Lewisham in the city's south, while protests continued in the streets of Hackney in the east, Clapham in the south, Camden in the north and Ealing in the west.

Scotland Yard said it had deployed an extra 1700 officers to deal with the London unrest.

Police said on Tuesday they had made 239 arrests over the three days, including an 11-year-old boy.

At least 35 police officers were injured in the unrest at the weekend.