(Reuters) – Cars were set on fire and masked people bombarded a petrol van with petrol bombs on Saturday, the second consecutive night of disorder, amid growing tensions after the Brexit in the region.
Many pro-British trade unionists have vehemently opposed the new trade barriers imposed between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK as part of Britain’s exit from the EU, warning that their discomfort could lead to violence.
Political leaders, including the British Minister for Northern Ireland, had called for calm earlier on Saturday, but police said they were attending reports of disorder in Newtownabbey in the northern suburbs of Belfast.
A video posted by the Northern Ireland Police Federation on Twitter showed four masked people throwing petrol bombs from close range at an armored police van, which also kicked and punched them.
Fifteen officers were injured in the Sandy Row area of Belfast on Friday when a small local protest turned into a riot. Police said the rioters attacked them with masonry, metal bars, fireworks and manhole covers.
The injuries included burns, head injuries and a broken leg, which resulted in seven people being arrested and charged, two of whom were as young as 13 and 14. Twelve officers were also injured in separate riots Friday in the city of Londonderry.
Other political parties have blamed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister Arlene Foster for their tensions with their strong opposition to the new trade arrangements.
“Through their words and actions, they have sent a very dangerous message to young people in loyalist areas,” said Gerry Kelly, a lawmaker from the pro-Irish Sinn Fein party, which shares power in the ousted government with the DUP. said in a statement. .
A DUP legislator, Christopher Stalford, said rioters were “acting out of frustration” after prosecutors chose not to charge any members of Sinn Fein last week for alleged violations of COVID-19 restrictions.
The DUP called on the police chief to resign over the issue.
The British-ruled region remains deeply divided along sectarian lines, 23 years after a peace deal largely ended three decades of bloodshed. Many Catholic nationalists are striving for unification with Ireland, while Protestant trade unionists want to stay in the United Kingdom.
Reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Edited by Daniel Wallis