Red flares falling over London skies leave people feeling like they’re living in a warzone

Mystery surrounds a shower of red flares set off over the River Thames, damaging houseboats and cars.

The flares were launched at around 10.30pm on Sunday from a housing development near Wapping, witnesses said.

They slowly descended, starting small fires and waking people from their sleep.

London Fire Brigade said crews were called, but fires had been extinguished before they arrived.

A spokesperson for Hermitage Moorings, a houseboat community, told Metro: ‘We had three fires on our boats while many had gone to sleep.

‘Our local hero was a neighbour boat dweller Thomas Zatorski who immediately extinguished all the fires.

‘We were all very lucky that none of them landed on petrol tanks that accompany the outboard engines on the smaller boats.’

Apoorv Srivastava watched the carnage unfold from his window. He told Metro: ‘To be honest it looked like a warzone in the night. It was completely crazy.

‘It was clear that these were not fireworks but flares as these are designed to not extinguish even in water.’

John Orwell football pitch was also damaged by one of the magnesium flares, which burn between 1,600°C and 2,000°C and can’t be put out with water.

Mr Srivastava said: ‘I was scared and was standing ready so that if it falls into my building’s garden – I could put it out.’

It is not known why such a barrage of flares was set off, but chants of ‘Championes, Ole Ole Ole’ were heard, leading some to speculate they may have been celebrating Arsenal’s success this season.

Previous similar occurrences have been held on London’s bridges by pro-Palestine supporters.

A spokesperson for LFB said they received several calls but by the time they arrived no firefighting was required.

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