Social networking sites may have been used to organise destructive behaviour - but now Twitter is being put to good use in a bid to unite the nation against the riots.

Hundreds of people mobilised by social networking sites turned up at Hackney Town Hall this morning to help clean up the aftermath of last night’s riots.

Hackney was one of 11 London locations where volunteers arrived for cleanup operations, after a Facebook and Twitter site called #riotcleanup was set up just 10 hours earlier.

The streets were already clear however, as council cleaners had worked throughout the night to clear the streets of all debris apart from a few burnt out cars by 7.30am.

Councillor Philip Glanville tweeted: “Mare Street [Hackney] update, council officers have already cleaned the streets around here. Big thank you to all our staff.

“Thanks to all the #riotcleanup people turning up in Hackney, but so far things are under control. Now heading up to Clarence Road,” he added.

Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney, came out to speak with the volunteers, and praised their “overwhelming generosity and community spirit.”

Many were keen to go and help in other parts of London when it was clear the clean up in Hackney was already complete.

Pipe said he was appalled by Monday night’s events: “These were people bent on violence who attacked not just property and local businesses, but put residents in fear of their lives,” he said.

He urged families across London to make sure they know where their children are and to support the police in identifying perpetrators, so as to avoid a repeat of Monday night’s events.