LONDON, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A Sony warehouse was looted of CDs and DVDs, then burned to the ground during a third day of rioting in London, a company representative said.
Police struggled to gain control of the city from groups of young people who have been vandalizing businesses and vehicles, setting fires and stealing in an episode of civil unrest not seen in England for decades. The Metropolitan Police said 525 arrests have been made in connection with the riots.
Monday night's destruction of the three-story Sony building, which is the company's only distribution center for CDs and DVDs in the United Kingdom, is expected to impact delivery of music and movies to both retailers and consumers, a Sony spokeswoman told Sky News.
The BBC said the building was home to the United Kingdom's biggest distributor of independent music, Pias, as well.
Memphis Industries, one of the labels Pias handles, said via Twitter: "All the stock we got left is sitting in our office. Devastated is the word."
"For us, it's devastating. It's a lot of labels that are distributed by Pias," Spencer Hickman from the Rough Trade East record store told the BBC. "It's complete chaos. We don't know how long it's going to take them to get back on their feet. It looks like people have lost everything that was in the warehouse. I'm sure there are labels which aren't insured. I'm sure there will be labels that will go bust."
Several movie theaters also closed their doors Monday night but were expected to reopen Tuesday if the situation allowed, The Hollywood Reporter said.
