Monday 15 July 2013

Petrol bombs and blast bombs thrown at police in Belfast


Police in BelfastThere was a heavy security presence in Belfast on Monday night
Adams calls for end to 

At least four blast bombs and several petrol bombs have been thrown at police during rioting in east Belfast.

A plastic baton round has been fired by police during the trouble on the Newtownards Road. Water cannon has also been deployed.

In north Belfast, petrol bombs and other missiles have been thrown at police near the loyalist Mount Vernon estate on the Shore Road.

A vehicle has also been set alight.

Police have said they are liaising with community representatives in the area "in an effort to restore calm".

Elsewhere, a pipe bomb was thrown at police on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast.

Police said the device was thrown at officers from Brompton Park in the Ardoyne area at about 17:00 BST.

They are asking the public to avoid the Broadway and Glenmachan Street areas of south Belfast as a crowd of about 50 people are throwing stones and other missiles at police.

Police have said there is also ongoing trouble in the Newtownards Road and Templemore Avenue areas of east Belfast.

Police say blast bombs were thrown from the loyalist Pitt Park area of east Belfast. A BBC journalist witnessed golf balls being thrown from the nationalist Short Strand area.

Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast was blocked on Monday evening to traffic due to "a large protest of several hundred people", but it has since reopened.

A loyalist march walked to police lines along the Woodvale Road and then joined a peaceful protest at Twaddell Avenue. Police instructed that the march was an illegal parade.

'Deplorable'

The device on the Crumlin Road had exploded close to police but there were no reported injuries.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Superintendent Emma Bond said: "We consider ourselves extremely fortunate that we are not dealing with a much more serious incident and that all of the officers were able to walk away from that situation unharmed.

"We have appealed for calm in the area and I continue to do so.

"I would appeal to anyone with influence in the community to exert it to ensure that the next few days pass off without incident."

Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, condemned the attack in north Belfast, which she said was "deplorable".

DUP assembly member William Humphrey said loyalist protesters were demonstrating peacefully in the Twaddell Avenue area when the incident happened.

He described the attack as an "attempt to injure and kill".

Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly said the attack was "completely unacceptable" and "not supported by the vast majority of the community in Ardoyne".

Police vehiclePetrol bombs were thrown at police in east Belfast

Police say there are a number of road closures in the Corcrain Road area of Portadown, County Armagh, due to the "build-up of crowds".

Forty-four police officers have been injured in the past three nights of rioting in Belfast.

Officers were attacked in the Woodvale area of north Belfast on Sunday night.

It followed more serious rioting on Friday and Saturday night after a Parades Commission determination that a parade by three Orange Order lodges would not be allowed to march along a stretch of the Crumlin Road that separates loyalist and nationalist communities on its return journey from the main Belfast 12 July demonstration.

It emerged on Monday night, that the US Vice-President Joe Biden had expressed "deep concern at parade-related violence and attacks on police" in conversation with the Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.


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