Red flares wreak fiery carnage leaving Londoners feeling like they are living in a ‘warzone’

Red sky at night? Run and hide. Londoners have described the carnage after a ‘dangerous’ shower of red flares fell on the capital.

Houseboats in a Wapping shipyard caught fire as boaters slept after the red flares descended on parachutes at around 10.30pm on Sunday.

In one video, groups of men can be heard singing ‘Championes, Ole Ole Ole’ as the flares are sent up.

It is thought they were on a housing development on the south side of the River Thames. It is unclear who fired the projectiles. There have been no arrests.

Cars were damaged, and a football pitch burned as heroic Londoners rushed to put out the fires themselves.

It is thought they could be magnesium flares which burn at over 600C and can’t be put out with water.

Apoorv Srivastava watched the carnage unfold from his window in Wapping.

He told Metro: ‘To be honest it looked like a warzone in the night. It was completely crazy. Some boats caught fire on the north side of Hermitage moorings.

‘It was clear that these were not fireworks but flares as these are designed to not extinguish even in water so they can be used by emergency crews in the sea.

‘They fell in the river and did not immediately extinguish either.

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

‘You can see them being fired at an angle towards Wapping otherwise they would be fired straight up in the air.’

‘Whoever they were – it was pretty irresponsible for the time of night, and proximity to properties, cars, boats, as well as shrub land.

‘We could assume no accidents to humans, but there is property damage, and what could have been is unthinkable.’

Hermitage Moorings, a community of houseboats, was bombarded by the flares.

A spokesman told Metro: ‘We had three fires on our boats while many had gone to sleep.

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

‘Otherwise, there could have been risks to lives as the fires were severe.’

The next day damage was seen on cars and burn marks left at John Orwell football pitch.

An LFB spokesperson told Metro: ‘We did receive a few calls at about half 10 last night to reports of flares being set off with further calls stating fires.

‘Crews did attend and searched the area but they did not locate any fires and no firefighting was required. We received no further related calls afterwards.’

He added: ‘The LFB urges people to use pyrotechnics responsibly and they should always be used well away from buildings, trees and other flammable materials.’