Riots in Belfast
Fresh trouble has erupted in east Belfast in the same area where loyalist disorder broke out on Thursday evening. The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed that its officers were attacked by up to 300 loyalist rioters in the Albertbridge Road-Castlereagh Street area, the Guardian reports.
It was the scene of rioting yesterday which resulted in 10 police officers being injured. There were reports of petrol bombs and other missiles being hurled at PSNI lines close to the nationalist Short Strand area.
A PSNI helicopter was also deployed in the sky over the area as riot squad officers tried to quell the disorder. A water cannon was moved into the area as police officers prepared for another night of rioting in the mainly loyalist part of Belfast which borders a small Catholic enclave.
The latest violence followed loyalist protests around major arterial routes in Belfast on Friday afternoon.