Northern Ireland leaders call for calm after night of rioting cruxnow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cruxnow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Advertisement
London: Rioters set a hijacked bus on fire and hurled petrol bombs at police in Belfast in the fourth night of violence in a week in Northern Ireland, where Brexit has unsettled an uneasy political balance.
Youths threw projectiles and petrol bombs at police on Wednesday night, UK time, in the Protestant Shankill Road area, while rioters hurled objects in both directions over the concrete “peace wall” separating the Shankill Road from a neighbouring Irish nationalist area.
The police had to close roads into the nearby Protestant area as crowds from each divide attacked each other.
Nationalists and Loyalists clash with one another at the peace wall on Lanark Way in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Wednesday.
Unionists, nationalists clash in Northern Ireland for 6th straight night
By (0)
April 8 (UPI) Northern Ireland officials are expected to meet Thursday after the sixth straight night of violence between unionists and nationalists, during which rioters torched a bus and attacked police in Belfast.
The unrest started last week with unionist complaints about lack of police action against Sinn Fein party members accused of breaking coronavirus restrictions during a funeral for a former leader of the Irish Republican Army, or IRA.
Advertisement
Some of the violence stems from a lack of progress on issues related to Britain s exit last year from the European Union and the political and economic effect it has had on Northern Ireland, as it is geographically an EU entry point.
Police said the bus was pelted with petrol bombs at the junction of Lanark Way and Shankill Road in west Belfast, while stones were thrown at officers and a press photographer was assaulted nearby.
Kevin Scott, photographer for the
Belfast Telegraph, explained: I d went to move my car at one point, realising that the situation was ever-changing. And as I was walking to my vehicle I heard footsteps running behind me, and when I turned around I was being attacked by one male - while another one stood by and watched him. I was pulled to the ground, my cameras taken and thrown and kicked around the street before then the second male directed sectarian abuse towards myself .
N Ireland leaders call for calm after night of rioting
by The Associated Press
Last Updated Apr 8, 2021 at 3:27 am EDT
Police separate Nationalists and Loyalists near the peace wall in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wednesday, April 7, 2021. The police had to close roads into the nearby Protestant area as crowds from each divide attacked each other. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
LONDON Rioters set a hijacked bus on fire and hurled gasoline bombs at police in Belfast in the fourth night of violence in a week in Northern Ireland, where Brexit has unsettled an uneasy political balance.
Youths threw projectiles and petrol bombs at police on Wednesday night in the Protestant Shankill Road area, while rioters hurled objects in both directions over the concrete “peace wall” separating the Shankill Road from a neighbouring Irish nationalist area.