Riot police from Lancashire battled looters in Colliers Wood last week, a public meeting has heard.

The chair of the meeting, called to discuss last Monday's looting and violence, said a senior officer from Merton police had been given a "thunderous" round of applause by local people.

Community leader Keith Spears said: "I think people realised the danger they were in. Thank goodness nobody got seriously injured and no-one was killed."

Merton police are now set to reduce the number of officers on patrol, but have promised the figure can be increased again at short notice.

More than 100 residents attended Saturday's meeting at Colliers Wood Community Centre to hear a panel including Superintendent Pete Dobson, Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh, Merton fire chief Jane Philpott and council leader Stephen Alambritis.

Supt Dobson told the meeting the Met was overstretched during the disorder last Monday night, and officers had to retreat from the Tandem Centre and Priory Retail Park - which were looted, vandalised and hit by arson - after four police vehicles were attacked with bricks. Riot police from Lancashire later clashed with looters.

After the meeting he said: "I am now making plans for the police to return to near normal levels of policing.

"It is not a realistic option for my staff to continue working 12 hour shifts without any days off for the remainder of the summer, but I will be making sure we have sufficient resilience that we can quickly up our numbers at short notice if needed."

He said he was "extremely pleased" at the level of support from residents, but said people at the meeting had called for better communication between the police, public bodies and local businesses.

Anyone with information about the riots should call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.