It was the night Croydon burned as mob rule took over the streets.

Marauding gangs of youths destroyed property at will as they made off with anything they could carry.

Using Blackberry messaging, the mob dressed in hoodies and masks and evaded police to carry out looting and arson.

It had started with rumours on Monday on Twitter and other social networking sites that Croydon was the next target for riots following disturbances in Tottenham and Brixton.

With talk that the town centre would be hit at 4pm, police officers descended on North End while stores upped their number of security guards.

Police spoke of “an appropriate policing plan” as small pockets of youths tried to raid the Whitgift Centre and Centrale with no luck.

But at 7pm, as the hordes continued to converge outside West Croydon station, things turned.

With North End now cordoned off, the police line – armed with riot shields and batons – faced an ever growing-mob of youths hurling missiles.

Bystanders ran for cover or stood with fear as police charged with batons to repel the youths.

With tensions mounting, anyone caught in the chaos was treated with suspicion as bricks and bottles continued to fly through the sky and youths tore around the police line on motorbikes and scooters.

Buildings were attacked, including Maplin on the corner of London Road, as police shut down West Croydon station with reports that up to 70 people were locked inside for their own safety.

By 7.30pm, the carnage seemed to have been abated with a lull in clashes and police standing firm outside North End.

But instead the groups of teens were reorganising, using their phones to select new targets not protected by police and reconvening near Reeves Corner.

Bereft of any police, by 8pm a horde of more than 100 youths were looting shops along Church Road with no fear of arrest.

The street outside Argos was littered with the detritus of looters, with kids running down the road with as much stuff as they could fit under their tops.

And then came the smoke.

In Old Palace Road, thugs had set alight a double-decker bus which burned ferociously.

Not satisfied, they moved on to House of Reeves, the furniture store on Reeves Corner that had stood there since 1867.

They started looting before burning a building that had survived two World Wars.

Police in riot gear stood just streets away but appeared unable to leave their position for fear North End would be targeted next.

And so the yobs carried on unchallenged and unchecked.

Reports came in that, as the police tried to deal with the disruption in the town centre, thieves hit the stores in Purley Way.

Groups strolled out of PC World and Curry’s with TVs, DVD players and SatNavs under their arms.

By 10.30pm, the mob had spread to neighbouring boroughs.

Witnesses described a procession of destruction along London Road towards Thornton Heath.

Smashing anything they saw, even charity offices were attacked as they continued the trail of destruction.

In Broad Green, masked looters were calling their friends to bring cars as they could not carry the goods they had taken.

Sumner Road was a running ground for youths loaded up with stolen property.

A row of buildings in London Road was set alight, with reports of people inside the buildings, while Lidl and Rock Bottom were trashed.

As the night wore on, more reports of looting and violence came in, stretching as far as New Addington in the south to Norbury in the north.

And even the town centre, which had seen the largest police presence and was seemingly impenetrable, eventually succumbed.

Rioters broke into the Whitgift Centre, smashing windows and destroying goods in shops.

By sunrise, the youths had dispersed and Croydon was waking up to the damage done across the borough including Norbury, New Addington, Addiscombe and Thornton Heath.

Buildings in London Road were still burning, shopkeepers saw the gutted shells that used to be their businesses and the streets were littered with debris from the riots.