At least 200 extra officers sent to Belfast from UK after another night of rioting
At least 200 police officers from mainland Britain arrived in Northern Ireland on Thursday as violent protests continued.
Police Scotland was expected to send around 90 officers, including five inspectors, under a mutual aid agreement with the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Officers were also sent from the North West and North East of England, according to a police source, but forces refused to say whether they were taking part for operational reasons.
Belfast braced for further disruption on Thursday night as businesses closed and trains and buses stopped from 6pm.
It follows a second night of violence on Wednesday, when the PSNI used water cannon (banned in England, Wales and Scotland) to disperse around 300 masked protesters in Glengormley, five miles north of Belfast.
The group is believed to have targeted a hotel said to be hosting migrants. A ‘hit list’ of properties thought to be harboring migrants had been in circulation for months and was reportedly known to the PSNI.
The force also fired 20 rubber bullets in Belfast, Glengormley and Portadown, 39km southwest, as gangs targeted homes and officers, throwing rocks, petrol bombs and other missiles.
Police reported that 16 people were arrested and 12 officers were injured.
At least 200 police officers from mainland Britain arrived in Northern Ireland yesterday as violent protests continued
Lendrick Street in east Belfast was engulfed in flames on Tuesday, with multiple cars and at least one house engulfed in flames
In a disgusting scene, an NHS nurse from an ethnic minority was reportedly chased by four masked men on her way to work at the Ulster Hospital in East Belfast in a ‘racist attack’.
The violence was sparked by a knife attack on Stephen Ogilvie on Monday night. Video footage showed a man pinned to the ground as his attacker hacked at his head.
Mr Ogilvie, who is in his 40s and is said to have lived in the same block of flats in north Belfast as the alleged attacker, lost an eye and was left in a medically induced coma.
On Thursday, DUP leader and Belfast East MP Gavin Robinson said his condition was ‘improving’. His family called for calm.
Hadi Alodid, who is Sudanese and arrived in Belfast in 2023, is charged with attempted murder.
On Thursday, the Daily Mail revealed that he had been granted asylum under an expedited program by completing a Home Office questionnaire instead of an interview.
Meanwhile, the South Eastern Trust said the nurse ‘bravely insisted on remaining at Ulster Hospital to provide care to the most vulnerable’. Adding: ‘The complete opposite of the people who scare him.’
Mobile phone footage showed dozens of men dressed in black with face coverings, some wearing red, white and blue balaclavas, gathering on Antrim Road in the north of the city and tearing bricks from houses to create bullets.
Police Scotland was expected to send an extra 90 officers to quell rioters in Belfast, with more staff sent from the North West and North East of England.
A house was set on fire in east Belfast, people living on the street were evacuated
A rioter set himself on fire while trying to throw a tear gas bomb in Portadown.
At a press conference on Thursday, PSNI deputy chief constable Ryan Henderson said: ‘Everyone with influence needs to do everything they can to clear thugs from our streets.’
Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn said of the violence: ‘This is racist thuggery, there is no doubt about that.’
Liam Kelly, of the Police Federation of Northern Ireland, told the Daily Mail that the support of police officers from the UK was ‘a must’.
He said the PSNI was 700 officers under target ‘due to significant underfunding’ and was unable to deal with ‘prolonged incidents’.
‘We witnessed shameful scenes reminiscent of fascism and racism,’ he said.
