Pockets of disorder broke out in several locations across Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening, with vehicles set on fire and crowds gathering on the streets. The Assistant Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed the unrest and repeatedly urged everyone to remain calm and to act responsibly as the trouble spread.
According to police, people gathered in a number of towns, including Antrim, Ballymena, Bangor and Belfast. Officers described what was unfolding as sporadic pockets of disorder rather than a single large gathering, a pattern that stretched the emergency services as they tried to respond to incidents in several different places at the same time.
In Belfast, a bus was set alight and was still burning in the middle of the Newtownards Road, just to the east of the city centre. A crowd of around 100 to 150 people had been gathered there for a couple of hours, standing in the middle of the road as the flames continued and more bins were set on fire nearby.
The disorder caused clear disruption along the street. Traffic was affected and people living in the area were left worried by what was happening on their doorstep. The bus that was burned will not be able to return to service, and the damage to property in the area added to the sense of unease among local residents.
A long line of police Land Rovers was seen driving past the scene with their lights flashing, although they turned off to head elsewhere, underlining how officers were trying to cover incidents across the region. Police said that while the numbers in each location were not vast, the fact that the trouble was spread across different places meant property was being damaged and lives were potentially being put at risk.
John Finucane, the Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for Belfast North, said nobody wanted to see such scenes and that there had been a clear and united message across the political spectrum throughout the day. He said he understood why people were angry, having spoken to police and to residents who had witnessed the attack the night before, but stressed that what people did with that anger mattered.
If the community wanted to serve the victim, he needs justice, not disorder, Finucane said. He called on people to give the police the space to carry out their investigation and to allow the courts to do their work, rather than adding to the burden on the emergency services, appealing in particular to anyone who cared about the victim, his family and friends, and the residents who had to witness the attack.
The unrest followed a knife attack in Belfast the previous night, which was described as a brutal and sustained assault and footage of which had circulated widely on social media. A man in his 40s remains in hospital in a serious condition, while a man in his 30s who was arrested at the scene has since been charged with attempted murder and is due to appear in court. With the legal process under way, police and political leaders had spent the day appealing for calm even as anger spilled onto the streets.