Gay book store targeted in London riots

Rioters in London have damaged the United Kingdom’s leading LGBT bookstore.

PinkPaper.com confirmed reports that Gay’s The Word, the longstanding bookstore on Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury, was attacked in the early morning hours of Aug. 8. Witnesses said a gang of adolescents on a “rampage” threw eggs at the shop before returning with rocks and bottles.

“Our impression is that there are certain people who have an issue with a visible gay business and are using the excuse of chaos to cause anti-gay damage,” assistant manager Uli Lenart told PinkPaper.com.

The store has spent over $2,000 replacing shattered windows and is now braced for a possible second wave of attacks.

The attack on the bookstore follows an earlier attack in London on Peccadillo Pictures, a U.K.- based distributor of gay/lesbian and independent films.

Youth rioters have been destroying and looting businesses for four days in London, initially in and around Tottenham. The incidents have spread to other cities, including Camden, Croydon, Liverpool and Birmingham.

Demonstrators have thrown firebombs at police officers and torched property, cars and London city buses. A total of 16,000 police officers are currently in the capital, and at least 400 people have been arrested in London.

The riots have been fueled by racial unrest along with massive unemployment and government cuts to welfare, education and healthcare.