David Cameron, the prime minister, said on Wednesday that the police “fightback’’ against rioting was succeeding as the presence of 16,000 officers on the streets of London had dampened violence across the capital on the fourth night of unrest.
Speaking from the steps of Downing Street after chairing a meeting of the Cobra security committee, Mr Cameron said that “every contingency [was] being looked at”, and “nothing [was] off the table”.
“The police are already authorised to use baton rounds, and we agreed at Cobra that while they are not currently needed, we now have in place contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours’ notice,” he said.