BASRA, April 7: Basra descended into chaotic scenes of lawlessness on Monday, with crowds of men and women taking out their anger at years of neglect by Saddam Hussein’s regime by looting the southern Iraqi city.

The university, ministry buildings, offices and houses of members of the ruling Baath party all became fair game for thousands of residents, who started looting once British tanks had entered the heart of the Iraq’s second largest city.

The vacuum of authority created by the troops’ arrival was total and nothing in the city of two million people was sacred.

“Before the troops arrived in Iraq it was 100 per cent safe. The government was strong and stopped people from stealing. But now these people could kill me to take my car,” said naval engineer Mohammed.

The offices of the oil ministry, the national electricity company, the central bank and other official bodies, badly damaged in coalition bombings, were invaded by armies of thieves, who carried off their booty on foot, strapped to the backs of donkeys or loaded up in cars.

“We are robbing the government that deserted us all and only granted a good life to one part of the country. Now the regime no longer exists,” said one young Iraqi as he and his friends made off with a table, chairs and shelves.

The smiling images of Saddam Hussein, intact in most parts of the city, were mute witness to the looting.

The scene at the university campus was heartbreaking. The building, smouldering from coalition attacks and its walls covered in fresh pock marks, was mobbed.

Everything went: tables, chairs, airconditioning units, ventilators, paintings, shelves, books.

“This is the future of our children. Without a university and without colleges, how will we be a real town?” asked one resident, blasting British troops for the lack of protection they offered.

A few metres away, Fadila was carrying off a computer and was staunchly defending it from those who wanted to take it away from her.

“Of course I need this television. I’m waiting for my husband to take it back to the house in his car,” she said, not wanting to believe the real use of the computer screen in her clutches.

More than 20 tanks that entered the campus hours earlier stood passively by, doing nothing to stop the disorder.—AFP