British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned that fuel protests are putting lives at risk as demonstrators keep up their blockades of oil refineries and the country Thursday drifted further towards chaos.
Dozens of petrol tankers, protected by police, on Wednesday left refineries and oil depots with much needed supplies, mostly for beleaguered emergency services, but deliveries amounted to no more than 10 percent of overall daily requirements at a time when 90 percent of petrol stations have run dry.
Six days into the crisis, some supermarkets also started to introduce rationing as consumers, whose earlier panic buying of petrol only made matters worse, switched to bulk buying of food.
Sainsbury's, one of Britain's largest food chains, said it had sold one and a half times as much produce as normal on Tuesday and Wednesday and that it risked running out of supplies within days.
Meanwhile some schools in central England started to close and the national health service was placed on emergency alert.
"Real damage is now being done to real people ... Lives are at risk," Blair told a news conference Wednesday evening, his second within 24 hours.
And he vowed that his government, which has obtained emergency powers to deal with the crisis but has not yet resorted to them, would "not give in to violence, blockades and threats" as protesters call for cuts in petrol taxes, the highest in Europe.
As a precautionary measure, the ministry of defense deployed 80 petrol tankers to various parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Susan Deacon said the national health service was being put at risk.
"As each hour goes by, as fuel shortages grow, services are being put at risk. Already we have seen clinics and non-emergency surgery cancelled, staff and patients prevented from getting to hospital and people being denied the care and treatment they need," she said.
But BBC television reported Wednesday night that the protests, mostly by truckers and farmers, continued to enjoy widescale public support.
Seventy-eight percent of people back the protests, the BBC said quoting an opinion poll of 500 people – LONDON (AFP)
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