Belfast: loyalists clash with police in second night of violence

Loyalists clash with police in the Woodvale Road area of Belfast. Photograph: Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters

A police officer was struck by a petrol bomb during a second evening of violence linked to the banning of a controversial loyalist march in north Belfast.

Stones, bottles and fireworks were thrown at lines of riot police in the Woodvale area as young loyalists launched attacks on police on Saturday night.

A spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the officer was not badly injured in the molotov cocktail attack and has since returned to duty.

Earlier a Belfast press photographer was struck in the face with a brick in the same area and sustained cuts to his mouth.

The violence however was not on the same scale as on Friday when 32 police officers were injured including two from other UK constabularies.

Northern Ireland's chief constable has been forced to call in 400 extra police officers from Britain to help his force cope with a deteriorating security situation linked to the province's sectarian marching disputes.

It will bring the number of English, Welsh and Scottish officers deployed across the Irish Sea to more than 1,000.

The move is unprecedented in terms of policing the marching season, even during the Troubles when the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) never asked for extra police back-up from other UK forces. Instead the RUC used the British army to bolster its security operations – a move the government is determined not to repeat as part of its drive to demilitarise and normalise Northern Ireland.

The two police officers from constabularies in Britain were injured on Friday alongside 30 of their colleagues from the Police Service of Northern Ireland during sustained violence in greater Belfast. A female officer brought over from Britain suffered a broken leg and a male officer from England suffered a broken jaw. In total, 4,000 police were on duty on Friday to cope with the security around the most sacred day in the Ulster loyalist calendar.

In Belfast they faced a barrage of petrol bombs, fireworks, bricks, stones, bottles and even attacks with ceremonial swords as hundreds of loyalists attacked police lines in the north and east of the city.

Matt Baggott, the head of the PSNI , described the Orange Order's call for street protests which quickly degenerated into rioting as "reckless" given the widespread sectarian disorder in Belfast on Friday.

Reacting on Saturday morning to the way his officers were attacked, the chief constable said the loyal order "needs to reflect" on its stance.

He said the attacks on police and the overall violence was "shameful and disgraceful".

The violence erupted on Friday evening after loyalists protested against a ban on Orangemen returning from the main celebration of King William of Orange's victory at the Battle of Boyne in the city via their traditional route.

The PSNI fired about 20 plastic baton rounds as well as using two mobile water cannons to deal with hundreds of loyalist rioters some of whom included children. A 14year-old boy was due in a Belfast court on Saturday in connection with the rioting.

Across the river Lagan PSNI riot police backed by up English, Welsh and Scottish colleagues also had to quell rioting in east Belfast after trouble broke out when local loyalists there returned from the main Orange demonstration.

For almost six hours the PSNI had to keep rival loyalist and nationalist youths apart who were exchanging missiles across police lines. At one stage police officers had to deal with loyalists using ceremonial swords to attack their lines around the Lower Newtonards Road.

As well as suffering a barrage of missiles for hours, many of the English, Scottish and Welsh officers on the streets on Friday were visibly taken back by the level of sectarian abuse exchanged between Orangemen and their supporters, and protesting Catholic residents at two flashpoints in north Belfast.