Northern Ireland: Fourteen police hurt in another night of violence

Fourteen police officers have been injured during another night of “disgraceful” rioting in Belfast.

The worst violence on Friday night happened in the loyalist Tiger’s Bay area and petrol bombs were also thrown in the nearby nationalist New Lodge.

Northern Ireland Riots: What's Behind Wave of Violence | Time

It was the 12th night of disorder in recent days, during which time a total of 88 police officers have been hurt.

Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin has warned against a “spiral back” to violence in Northern Ireland.

A car on fire on a street in Belfast
A car was set alight and rammed against a police vehicle during the disorder

On Saturday, the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, he urged political leaders to “step forward and play our part and ensure that this cannot happen”.

The taoiseach said the “most visible success” of the peace deal had been that a “whole generation of young people have grown up not knowing or experiencing the violence that accompanied the Troubles”.

Mr Martin added: “We owe it to the agreement generation… not to spiral back to that dark place of sectarian murders and political discord.”

Police in riot gear watch as a petrol bomb lands close to them in Belfast
Fourteen police officers were hurt in north Belfast

Three 14-year-old boys were arrested during the disorder on Friday and have been released pending further inquiries.

There was also three hours of “senseless” trouble in Coleraine, County Londonderry, which police said had left people in a residential area “petrified in their homes”.