03/09/2012

Police Officers Injured During North Belfast Riots

One police officer was kept in hospital overnight and forty-six others had minor injuries following riots in north Belfast last night.

Petrol bombs, fireworks and other improvised missiles were thrown at police during hours of trouble at Carlisle Circus.

The trouble broke out when loyalists protested against a republican band parade that had been cleared by the Parades Commission.

Police said the initial violence involved up to 350 loyalists and four police officers were taken to hospital.

They said that after the afternoon parade by the Henry Joy McCracken Flute Band, trouble erupted between loyalists and republicans.

The policeman who is still in hospital has injuries that are not life-threatening, the BBC has reported.

The PSNI used water cannon to disperse rioters and said calm was restored to the area at about 02:00 BST on Monday. Most of the violence was centred in Denmark Street and the Antrim Road.

One 17-year-old man was arrested.

Tensions had been high following disturbances at a loyalist march in the same the area last weekend.

At the annual Royal Black Institution demonstration on Saturday August 25, bricks and bottles were thrown and seven police officers were injured.

Several loyalist bands played music while marching past St Patrick’s Catholic Church on Donegall Street at the northern edge of the city centre, in defiance of Parades Commission rulings.

(NE)

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