Belfast Riots By Txt

As the longer summer nights loom, a warning has been issued that youths in Belfast are text messaging each other to arrange riots.

Following reports earlier this month that police believed a riot in Londonderry - involving up to 100 youths - was organised on the Internet, orchestrated through social networking websites, the NI Assembly has been told that young people are "spoiling for a fight" and are also using the Internet to organise confrontations.

Sinn Fein Assembly member Caral Ni Chuilin, from north Belfast, made the claims during yesterday's Stormont debate on tackling violence in an area that continues to be dogged by sectarian tension.

The Assembly heard that just last week a 14-year-old boy was badly beaten and pensioners' homes were petrol bombed in the latest incidents of unrest on streets where Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods adjoin.

Ms Ni Chuilin has called for the Northern Ireland Executive to establish a forum bringing together politicians and community activists to address the problem.

"Children and young people have become involved in what has been described as recreational rioting on interfaces," she told fellow MLAs.

"And indeed there are a small number organising riots over the internet and through text messaging and I found this quite shocking."

She said action needed to be taken before tensions rose further with the onset of the summer marching season.

See: Rioters United!

(BMcC)