Flag Violence 'Depressing' - Villiers

Northern Ireland’s Secretary of State has described as "profoundly depressing" the recent rioting over the flying of the union flag at Belfast City Hall.

Theresa Villiers was speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

She said Northern Ireland was being "held to ransom” by the protests and called an end to all demonstrations – including those that are peaceful.

Ms Villiers' comments came as the PSNI was under fire for a fifth consecutive night over the restrictions on the flying of the union flag.

Plastic bullets were fired by police as protesters used hatchets, sledge hammers and petrol bombs, set barricades alight and threw rocks, stones and bottles.

"It's not acceptable that those who say they are defending a union flag are actually doing it by hurling bricks and petrol bombs at police," Ms Villiers said. "It's disgraceful, frankly."

She said she was "fully supportive of the great efforts the PSNI are making to crack down robustly on those who continue to break the law" and called for the protests to end so that politicial dialogue could continue over the issue of flags and emblems.

"All these protests have to stop altogether, even the peaceful protests are causing disruption and even they are making it far more difficult to have a proper dialogue to resolve these kinds of issues," she told BBC Radio Ulster.

"Not only is it disgraceful in terms of injuries to police officers and people who live in the areas affected by the riots, it's also doing huge damage to Northern Ireland's image abroad."

Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Vernon Coaker was also speaking on the programme.

He said the riots had become a matter of "national security".

"People may disagree with decisions that are taken but in a democracy you cannot have violence on the streets as a way of trying to bring about change to those decisions."

104 people have been arrested since the protests began on 3 December.

(IT)