London riots: new business for Amazon?

Here's an amazing stat related to the London riots.

Over the past 24 hours sales of aluminum bats are up more than 5,000 percent on Amazon.co.uk, the British division of the online retail giant.

But that's not all.

Wooden bats are popular, too, right now. Sales of these bashing devices are up almost 4,000 percent since yesterday.

The biggest mover on Amazon.uk's "Sports and Leisure" page?

Military Police Telescopic Tonfas (read: side-handled batons).

Here's the full list.

(Hat tip to our ever vigilant friends at Business Insider). 

And for the latest on-the-ground analysis of London's riots, check this great piece today by GlobalPost's Michael Goldfarb, whose London neighborhood became part of this unfolding story last night.

And the best photos we've seen so far are here at PlanetPic.