TikTok-inspired raid on UK’s famous Oxford Street slammed by minister
- Footage showed police wielding batons in clash with dozens of young men, with customers locked inside shops on Europe’s busiest shopping street
- Home Secretary says ‘the kind of lawlessness seen in some US cities’ must not come to UK, city’s mayor decries ‘nonsense’ circulating on TikTok
Footage showed police wielding batons in a clash with dozens of young men on Wednesday and wrestling some of them away, while officers on horseback helped to disperse hundreds of people in Europe’s busiest shopping street.
Stores were forced to close their shutters and lock customers inside during the looting raid, which was reportedly inspired by a social media craze encouraging people to take part in an “Oxford Street JD robbery”. JD is a sports retailer.
The Metropolitan Police arrested nine people and issued 34 dispersal orders during the incident.
It included TikTok prankster Mizzy, who insisted in a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had “nothing to do” with the raid.
Sharing a video on X of police clashing with youths, Braverman said: “We cannot allow the kind of lawlessness seen in some American cities to come to the streets of the UK.”
