Police in Northern Ireland arrested a 38-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder on Saturday after reports of shots being fired at officers during fresh rioting in Belfast.
Police deployed water cannon and fired baton rounds in the third consecutive night of violence in the east of the city, facing off against more than 100 people throwing fireworks, bricks and other masonry, a police spokesman said.
The rioting followed a largely peaceful demonstration by more than 1,000 people outside Belfast city hall against the city council’s decision last month to limit the days it flies the British flag each year.
Photo: Reuters
The Dec. 3 ruling was viewed by pro-British groups as a concession too far to republicans who want Northern Ireland to be part of Ireland and sparked weeks of street violence.
Several people were arrested for public order offenses during Saturday’s disturbances and at least one officer was injured, police said.
“Police are also investigating reports that a number of shots have been fired at police lines on the Newtownards road [in traditionally pro-British east Belfast],” a spokesman said. “A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.”
Thirteen people were charged with public order offenses, one of them in relation to Saturday’s rioting, during which at least one police officer was injured, the spokesman said.
The other 12 people were charged with disorder on Friday night, when up to 300 people hurled Molotov cocktails, fireworks, ball bearings and masonry at police, leaving nine officers injured.
On Thursday night, about 100 people were involved in the violence, which police and politicians have blamed on loyalist paramilitaries.
Conall McDevitt, a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly with the republican Social Democratic and Labour Party, said the apparent use of guns in the unrest undermined the demonstrators’ claim to be involved in legitimate protests.
“Whatever grievance some people may have had, it is totally lost when they allow people to use these protests as cover for attempted murder,” he said.
“There is only one response possible, and that’s a firm policing response against everyone involved in illegal protests and anyone seeking to organize or encourage illegal or violent demonstrations,” McDevitt added.
On Friday, Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson, the leader of the Protestant, pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, said attacks on police officers were a “disgrace, criminally wrong and cannot be justified.”
Last month’s flag vote has raised tensions in the province, which endured three decades of sectarian violence until 1998 peace accords led to a power-sharing government between Protestants and Catholics.
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