With the majority of countries imposing a mandatory shutdown in an attempt to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, there are reports on people facing a shortage in the supply of products in supermarkets following the panic buying.
On March 23, 2020, the UK government imposed the lockdown across the county for three weeks. In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, a video has started circulating online showing people rioting and looting shops. The five-minute 30-second clip is going viral on social media claiming to be an incident that happened in England amid the lockdown.
"England. Riots began due to lockdown. People who began to starve took action. Brutally looting everywhere to fill the hungry stomach this is just the beginning hopefully in Indonesia. This won't happen," reads the translated (from the Indonesian language) text of the viral post. In the video, people are seen vandalising public bus, some fashion stores and shops by smashing the glass windows and looting items in Peckham district in England.
Hoax busted
The video that is doing the rounds on social media showing people looting shops in the UK is, however, not associated with the Coronavirus lockdown. The video initially surfaced online in 2011 during the riots in the south London district of Peckham.
Also, even Facebook has flagged the video as a misleading one. The clip is edited from the longer version of another YouTube video titled 'Peckham Riot & Looting - 08 August 2011' that is available online showing the summary of events happened in Peckham on 08 August 2011.
The London riots were a series of riots that took place from August 6 to 11 in 2011. Though it started at Tottenham, it was later spread to Brixton, Enfield, Peckham, Ealing, among other areas and was called as the largest example of a disorder in post-war Britain.
Coronavirus in the UK
While the novel Coronavirus has claimed the lives of 82,933 people globally, the death toll in the UK alone is believed to be 6,159 so far. Meanwhile, as many as 48,948 active cases are currently reported in the country with 1,559 critical cases, at the time of reporting.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been tested positive with COVID-19 is currently under treatment at London's St Thomas' Hospital after his symptoms worsened on Tuesday, April 7. The 55-year-old is expected to remain there for close monitoring for a few more days.
