Scotland Yard officers are working urgently to identify the extremists who clashed with police and attacked landmarks on Saturday before they can strike again.
Commander Bob Broadhurst, the head of public order for the Metropolitan Police, warned that the anarchists would be "deliberately targeting" the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29.
"The concern for me is that they do what they did yesterday in central London and divert resources away from my security plan and take our eye off the ball security wise," he said.
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, was under fire last night for speaking at the TUC march, during which the violence occurred. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, said Mr Miliband would have been "quietly satisfied" by the chaos and claimed it was not surprising there was violence as Labour was failing to offer any alternative to the cuts.
The weekend's rally against the Government's austerity drive was marred by splinter groups who attacked officers and targeted shops and hotels. Mobs of masked anarchists pelted officers with sticks, paint bombs and fireworks loaded with coins.They brought chaos to Oxford Street and Piccadilly, the capital's busiest shopping streets, where they started fires, smashed their way into banks and shops, including Fortnum and Mason, the department store, and Topshop, and attacked the Ritz hotel.
More than 200 people were arrested and 31 police officers were injured, including 11 who were taken to hospital.
The anarchists ended the day in Trafalgar Square, where they set fire to banners and threw missiles and broken bottles at officers.
Police are sifting through CCTV and surveillance photographs in an attempt to identify the most violent protesters. They estimate that a hard core of 500 protesters were involved in the violence. Commander Broadhurst said a number of groups had warned that they would be "deliberately targeting" the royal wedding.
He told The Daily Telegraph: "That has been on my radar for a long time. I will have different powers at my disposal to ensure that the wedding footprint as it were is kept safe from protest.
"I'm dealing with a security operation in a city under a terrorist threat. We will be putting in sterile zones, using counter-terrorist powers, closing roads and [using] stop and search powers.
"Yesterday reinforced the fact that there does appear to be an appetite out there to endorse violence.”
Referring to Saturday’s disturbances, he added: “These are criminal acts, every one of these buildings is being treated as a crime scene and we will get a lot of CCTV back.
“I would say that if you were involved in the violence then the chance is that we will be arresting you in the near future.”
But he also admitted that his officers struggled to keep up with the violence as the Met faced criticism from some quarters over its handling of the event.
He said: “They never allowed themselves to get stopped or detained by us. I would describe it as hit-and-run tactics, they were always just ahead of us getting sufficient protective resources there to stop them.
“They were using light bulbs filled with ammonia, petrol bombs and smoke flares. Any one of these can kill not just a police officer but a member of the public. These people are willing to resort to this naked violence in front of cameras. It is almost as if they have no fear of judicial process in this country.”
Brian Paddick, a former deputy assistant commissioner with the Met, said the police should have made more use of their powers to unmask protesters and stop and search them for weapons.
He said: “They have got to take people out on the day, not take photos and arrest them later. Only if these people believe they will get caught because they will be unmasked and arrested will they desist from carrying out these attacks.”
Commander Broadhurst insisted that police had been unable to find sufficient evidence to arrest people before the marches. He said: “We are not a police state, we are not the thought police, we cannot read people’s minds.”
Last night two of the 201 people arrested in connection with the disorder were charged. Omar Ibrahim, 31, from Glasgow, was charged with violent disorder and assaulting a police officer.
A 17-year-old boy was charged with possessing an offensive weapon and being equipped for criminal damage.
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