Hundreds of people were arrested in a fourth night of rioting and looting in regional cities across Britain as the situation in London remained largely calm, police said, DPA reported.
As looting spread to Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Liverpool and other towns and cities, three men were killed in Birmingham by a hit-and-run driver, police said.
The three Asian men were protecting property in their neighbourhoods during rioting, reports said. Police have arrested a man and started a murder inquiry.
There was an "extraordinary level" of violence in Manchester, where 108 people were arrested, police said. In Liverpool, rioters attacked fire brigade vehicles and in Nottingham, a police station was firebombed. No-one was injured.
There were also smaller outbreaks of violence in Reading, Oxford, Leicester, Gloucester, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Milton Keynes.
Meanwhile in London, the focus of three nights of violence, looting and arson, the situation remained relatively calm as police reinforcement were called in, trebling the number of officers on the streets to 16,000.
Scotland Yard said 768 people had been arrested in the capital to date and 111 charged.
A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said stepping up the police presence in the capital had "clearly worked," and the tactic would be continued as "long as necessary."
The government's Cobra emergency committee was due to meet later Wednesday to review the security situation.
The violent demonstrations and looting started Saturday in Tottenham in north London following the death of criminal suspect Mark Duggan during a police sting operation.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said Tuesday that there was "no evidence" that Duggan had opened fire before he was shot.