Belfast flags trouble: Police use water cannon in east Belfast
Water cannon have been used after rioting erupts for a fifth night in east Belfast.
The disorder began close to the nationalist Short Strand area as loyalists returned from a protest at the city hall.
Police were attacked with petrol bombs and bricks while separating rival groups.
Protests have been held since councillors voted to limit the days the union flag flies over city hall.
Motorists are advised to avoid the Lower Newtownards Road, Albertbridge Road and Templemore Avenue areas due to ongoing disorder.
Petrol bombs, fireworks and other missiles were also thrown at police during rioting on Robbs Road in Dundonald on Monday evening.
A car was set on fire in Bute Park.
Earlier, the Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable said that individual senior loyalist paramilitaries had been involved in orchestrating violence during union flag protests in east Belfast.
Matt Baggott said there was “no excuse whatsoever” for violence.
He said if protests continued in the long-term, day-to-day policing would be affected.
This included his officers’ ability to deal with the threat from dissident republicans, he added.
Young people
Sixty-two officers have been injured since the protests began.
Councillors are meeting on Monday evening for the first time since the vote was taken on 3 December.
The first of those designated flag days will be Wednesday 9 January, the Duchess of Cambridge’s birthday.
A large security operation was put in place around Belfast City Hall ahead of the meeting. A loyalist protest was held outside city hall but it passed off peacefully.
The chief constable confirmed that since the flag protests began, 96 people have been arrested, including a “significant number” of young people.
Mr Baggott said he was concerned that children as young as 10 were becoming involved in rioting.
He said many were out on the streets “without parental control” and were at risk of “blighting their own future”.
“At a time when we are working desperately hard with the tourist board, investment agencies, foreign investors, to present the right picture of Northern Ireland as a place that’s worthy of investment, many of those young people who may benefit from that will now have convictions,” he said.
‘No excuse’
On Sunday night, a protest took place near the nationalist Short Strand area of Belfast. Later, as hundreds of protesters went up Castlereagh Street bricks, barriers and bottles were thrown at police.
Mr Baggott told a press conference on Monday: “I am concerned that senior members of the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) in east Belfast – as individuals – have been increasingly orchestrating some of this violence.
“That is utterly unacceptable and is being done for their own selfish motives. There is no excuse whatsoever for violence, as we’ve said, and we will be investigating that and taking the appropriate action.”
Billy Hutchinson, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) which has links with the UVF, said he intended to hold talks with the group.
“If this is the chief constable’s assessment, then what I am saying to people in east Belfast, people belonging to the UVF, please desist from being involved in violence,” he said.
“My understanding, having talked to the leadership, is that there are no splits and what I am saying is that the PUP and others will talk to the UVF in east Belfast in and around the problems that exist.”
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