London (AP)-Sienai Irish police say 17 officers were injured in the second night of anti-immigrant violence in Ballymena, where rioters threw bricks, bottles, gasoline bombs and fireworks and set fire to several vehicles and homes.
The police used a water cannon and fired rubber bullets to dispel the crowd of several hundred people. The Northern Ireland Police Service said Wednesday that violence had fallen by about 1 hour. (0000 GMT). Five people were arrested in suspicion of “horrible behavior.”
What caused violence?
Violence arose on Monday after a peaceful march to show support to the victim family of a suspected sexual attack over the weekend. Two 14 -year -old boys were accused.
The suspects were not identified because of their age. They were supported by the Romanian translator in court.
After the hike, the crowd ignited several houses most of the young people and the police were underwear. The Northern Ireland Police Service said 15 officers were injured that night.
On Tuesday, there were similar scenes after dark, as well as small disorder in several other cities of Northern Ireland.
Police said agitators in social media help to incite what the Chief Consulate Assistant Ryan Henderson called a “racist attempt.”
What is the background?
Some politicians said immigration tightened the city of about 30,000 in the city of about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Belfast, a long -known bastion of a solid British loyalty.
Jim Allister, the voice leader of the Conservative Party’s traditional ally, said “untested migration, which is for what the city can deal with is a source of past and future tension.”
Some Romanians in Ballityna told the British PA news agency that they had been living in the city for many years and were shocked by violence.
Several houses in the Clonavon Terrace area, which were drawn to the attention of violence, raised signs that, in obviously trying to avoid targeted, identify their inhabitants as British or Filipinos.
Henderson said there was no evidence that the loyalists’ papers, who were still holding Protestant communities, were behind the disorder.
Has this happened before?
Northern Ireland has a long history of street disorder, which lasts tensions between British allies and Irish nationalist communities.
Although three decades of violence known as “troubles” ended mostly after 1998. The peace agreement remains tension among those – mainly Protestants – who consider themselves to be British and Irish nationalists who are mostly Catholic. Belfast Peace Walls still distinguishes the Protestants and Catholic districts of the workers.
Street rioters are accidentally confronted with the police, and recently immigrants have become a target.
Last year, immigrants in Northern Ireland and England were caused by violence after three girls were demolished to death through the Taylor Swift -themed dance class in Southport, Northwest England. The authorities argued that misinformation misinformed the UK -born teenager attacker as a migrant.
What will happen next?
Police condemned the latest violence and said they would call officers from England and Wales to strengthen their answer if necessary.
All countries of the Government of the Northern Ireland have issued a joint statement appealing to a peaceful and calling for people to reject the “different agenda, which carries out a small proportion of destructive, dishonest characters.”
As a result of the alleged sexual attack, the statement added that “it is very important that the justice process is now allowed to go to their course, so that this terrible crime can be firmly investigated. Those who arrange the situation to sow racial tension, do not care about seeing justice and have nothing to offer to their communities.