A LARGE group of Enfield Town residents took to the streets to protect their community from looters this evening.

A 300-hundred strong crowd congregated at The King’s Head, in Market Place, from around 10.30pm.

However, with no sign of the rioters, the would-be vigilantes became the police’s biggest disturbance of the night.

A source among the crowd, who did not wish to be named, said there was a mixture of party atmosphere with a “tone of aggression”.

At one point during the evening, some members reported shouting in a church yard behind the pub.

Around 50 people charged to confront what they thought were rioters, but police rushed to block them off.

The group fell back after they realised it was “just kids” and returned to the pub.

Later in the evening, just after midnight, a few police vehicles outside the pub turned on their lights and drove off.

Believing the police were responding to reports of looters, some men ran to their cars to follow.

However, officers led the vigilantes on a tour of Enfield Town before returning to the pub where four armoured police vehicles had turned up.

Riot police then began to disperse the "vigilantes" at around 12.15am leading to confusion among the group.

There was a sense among them that they were there to support the police and could not understand why officers had "turned on" them.

Just before 1am almost all the group had left the area and gone home.

Earlier in the evening, television crews also visited the group and interviewed local mum-of-three Penny Henshaw, 41, of Monks Close.

She said she had had enough of the riots in London and the group was there to protect the local community.

A source also suggested members of the far-right group, the English Defence, attached themselves to the group - due to the occasional chant of ‘E-D-L’ heard.

A large group of men were spotted in the north east of the borough earlier in the evening, some of whom were also chanting the initials.