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Hundreds of rioters armed with shotguns, gasoline bombs and bricks fought with 500 police officers in north London on Sunday night. One officer was killed and at least 72 people, including 54 police officers, were wounded.

The slain officer died from multiple stab wounds in the neck. Three of the wounded officers and four British journalists, including two members of a BBC television crew, were reported to have been hit by shotgun fire.

Government officials said they could not recall a previous urban riot in Britain in which a police officer had been killed or shotguns had been used against the police. Areas of London, Liverpool and Birmingham have been hit by riots in the last two months. #500 Involved in Riot At its height, the riot on Sunday night involved 500 people, including blacks and whites. Much of the violence occurred in a black public housing project in a predominantly white area of the Tottenham district.

Early today, as rain began to fall, the situation was calmer, although buildings were still burning and the housing project was surrounded by police officers. The police brought in tear gas but did not use it. Groups of riot officers, some beating their truncheons against their shields, made charges to disperse groups of youths.

Woman Died After Search

The riot broke out after a black woman, Cynthia Jarrett, 49 years old, collapsed and died Saturday while her home in Tottenham was being searched by the police. The police said they thought stolen goods might have been placed there by her son Floyd, 24, who was arrested earlier in the day.

The police, who had a warrant for the search, said Mrs. Jarrett had been cooperative until another son arrived home and began objecting to the presence of the police.

Accrding to a police spokesman, Mrs. Jarrett collapsed at that point ''and the officers were physically shoved out of the house.'' The spokesman added, ''Eventually they persuaded the occupants to let them back in, and one of the officers trained in first aid administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but without success.''

It is the second time in a week that violence has been touched off in London by a police search. Last weekend, rioting broke out in the south London district of Brixton after a black woman, Cherry Groce, was shot by police officers who raided her home in a search for her son. Mrs. Groce lost the use of her legs, and crowds of youths attacked a police station and looted and burned local shops when news of the shooting became known.

Five weeks earlier, the police in Birmingham shot and killed a 5-year-old boy in a raid on a house. The police said both shootings were accidental.

Mrs. Jarrett's 23-year-old daughter, Patricia, contended on Sunday that a police officer searching her mother's home had pushed her mother, causing her to fall down and gasp for breath. She said her mother, who weighed more than 280 pounds and had high blood pressure, died before an ambulance arrived.

Miss Jarrett said the police continued their search after her mother collapsed. Although family members did push the officers outside for a time, she said, they then pleaded with the police to take Mrs. Jarrett to the hospital and administer first aid, she said.

''But they showed my mother no respect,'' Miss Jarrett said. ''They ignored her. They thought we were putting it on.''

Demonstration at Police Station

On Saturday night about 30 people demonstrated outside the Tottenham police station. Although local leaders and Mrs. Jarrett's family appealed to Tottenham residents on Sunday not to resort to violence, about 50 people demonstrated outside the police station again early Sunday afternoon.

The police promised on Sunday that the circumstances of Mrs. Jarrett's death would be investigated.

The serious trouble began shortly before 7 P.M., when police officers were attacked with bottles and gasoline bombs, and cars were turned over and set on fire.

Shops were then set ablaze, and shortly before 10 P.M. the first gunshots were heard. The police, clad in riot gear, called in reinforcements and managed to seal off the Broadwater Farm public housing project, the apparent center of the fighting.

Andrew Sansom, a caretaker in the housing project, described the scene as ''terrifying.''

Scotland Yard named the dead officer as Constable Keith Henry Blakelock, 40 years old, who was married and had three sons.

Path of Ambulance Blocked

Constable Blakelock was taken to a hospital by a fire engine because an ambulance could not get through. A firefighter who helped take him to the hospital said he had seen the officer lying seriously wounded while crews tried to rescue people trapped in apartments over a burning supermarket.

''We were trying to get above the supermarket,'' he said, ''and all of a sudden two or three hundred black youths ran up the stairs hurling bricks, bottles, stones, and petrol bombs.''

A total of 18 civilians, including the journalists, were taken to a local hospital with injuries, including a middle-aged white man who was apparently stabbed by a white youth and was in serious condition.

Last month, there was serious rioting in Handsworth, a mixed district of Birmingham, after an arrest in which officers scuffled with local residents.

Last week, mobs attacked the police and burned stores in Liverpool and in Peckham, an area of south London.

The spate of violence in Britain's inner cities has drawn attention to the comparative failure of minority recruiting drives by the British police. According to Scotland Yard, less than 1 percent - only 260 out of 27,000 - of the police officers stationed in the greater London area are nonwhite.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: POLICEMAN KILLED IN LONDON BATTLE WITH RIOTING MOB. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe