Violence wracked Northern Ireland for a third night on Wednesday, as police clashed with anti-immigrant rioters across the territory.
In Ballymena, where the unrest began on Monday, groups of masked rioters hurled petrol bombs and bricks at police officers. In Larne, about 20 miles west, masked groups set fire to a leisure center that was temporarily used as emergency housing for families forced out of Ballymena earlier in the week. The local authorities told the BBC in a statement later that the families had all been safely relocated.
The arson attacks come after homes and cars were targeted in Ballymena, in what the police say are “hate-fueled” attacks after an alleged sexual assault in the town on Saturday.
Northern Ireland’s power sharing executive issued a joint statement on Wednesday condemning what they described as “racially motivated violence.”
“Those weaponising the situation in order to sow racial tensions do not care about seeing justice and have nothing to offer their communities but division and disorder,” the statement said.
At least 32 police officers have been injured. On Wednesday, the Police Service of Northern Ireland requested mutual aid from elsewhere in the United Kingdom; the police in Scotland confirmed they would be sending a deployment of officers to Northern Ireland on Thursday.
The conflagration, which started in Ballymena and has quickly spread to other towns in Northern Ireland, began on Monday after two 14-year-old boys appeared in court, charged with the attempted oral rape of a teenage girl in Clonavon Terrace on Saturday night. The boys spoke through a Romanian translator, the BBC reported, and both denied the charges through their lawyer.
The incident prompted outrage in Ballymena, a town about 30 miles northwest of Belfast. It was quickly amplified by far-right and anti-immigration voices on social media.
On Wednesday afternoon, the streets of Clonavon Terrace were quiet. Children peered out of windows as heavily armored police vehicles zipped through the streets. Several homes were boarded up — some displayed Union Jack flags in the windows, signaling that those inside were British. Residents stood in doorways, quickly shutting doors if approached.
By nightfall, large groups had once again gathered, squaring off with nearly a dozen heavily armored police vehicles and dozens of officers in riot gear. Bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs smacked against riot shields of dozens of police officers, who used water cannons and, later, attack dogs on those who refused to disperse. The tit-for-tat exchange wound its way through the mazelike streets of the neighborhood until the crowds began to scatter around 11 p.m.
More demonstrations are expected on Thursday, when a status yellow warning may bring rain and heavy thunderstorms to parts of Northern Ireland.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in London.
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