Youths run from police during Romford ‘planned looting event’

A video shows the moment officers chased a group of youths who allegedly congregated in Romford centre when a dispersal order was in place.

The order was put in place in the town centre following social media speculation of a planned event in the area yesterday (August 16).

Police believed the event could have repeated the scenes in Oxford Street last week (August 9), where large groups met up in a social media craze causing disturbance and encouraging people to take part in an ‘Oxford Street JD robbery’.

In Oxford Street shops were forced to shut and nine arrests were made.

Footage taken shows a group of officers chasing some people during the hours the Romford dispersal order was in place.

The video shared by @ig1ig3 was captioned with: “Police officers seen chasing kids after planned ‘looting’ this afternoon in Romford.’

Havering MPS said yesterday they were working with Havering Council and Romford businesses to prevent any criminal behaviour.

But the spokesperson told the Recorder that local businesses did not need to be alarmed and the dispersal order was a precautionary measure.

The order was put in place for 48 hours and allows police to “instruct individuals to leave the area” and “not return for a designated period”.

Failure to comply can result in an arrest under law.

The spokesperson said: “Anyone who is coming to Romford intent on criminal behaviour can expect to be dealt with by officers.”

We have contacted the Met Police about this incident and will update this story when they respond.