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Petrol bombs thrown at police in south Belfast riot
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Petrol bombs, bricks and bottles were thrown at police during sustained rioting in the Sandy Row area of Belfast on Friday night.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said eight officers were injured and seven people arrested.
Donegall Road and Bradbury Place were closed to traffic.
Up to 100 people had gathered in the Shaftesbury Square area where a loyalist protest had been expected to take place.
Trouble began before 20:00 BST, when fireworks and other missiles were thrown at police.
Brandon Lewis described the unrest as completely unacceptable .
Eight police officers were injured on Friday evening after being targeted in Sandy Row by a crowd of mostly young people throwing bottles, bricks and fireworks.
Mr Lewis said: Violence is never the answer. There is no place for it in society. It is unwanted, unwarranted and I fully support the PSNI appeal for calm.
He added that his thoughts were with the eight officers injured.
The trouble came after four successive nights of disturbances in the unionist Waterside area of Derry.
The disorder has flared amid ongoing tensions within loyalism across Northern Ireland.