Plastic bullets were fired at loyalist rioters in north Belfast last night. At least two RUC officers were hospitalised after a crowd of over 300 attacked police lines at Brookefield Mill on the Crumlin Road shortly after 7 p.m.
The Assistant Chief Constable, Mr Alan McQuillan, said a peaceful protest had degenerated into a "vicious" assault on riot police with petrol bombs, blast bombs and fire crackers. He said, once again police were caught in the middle during a "concerted attack on the nationalist community" by loyalists.
Because of the scale of the rioting, plastic bullets had been fired, he added. Mr McQuillan called on community representatives in north Belfast to "restore some form of sanity to the situation".
A car was also set on fire and pushed towards police lines and a stockpile of petrol bombs was seized by officers. Police vehicles were struck by shots and blast bombs but there were no reported causalities. A second car and a van were later hijacked by the mob and set on fire and a pipe bomb with nails attached was made safe by the army. Police returned fire with baton rouonds.
Earlier, extra police had to be drafted in to escort pupils and parents to the Holy Cross primary school in Ardoyneamid threats of sniper attacks. Firecrackers exploded as parents walked through a Protestant area to collect their children.
A local priest described the atmosphere as the tensest since the first day of term four weeks ago. Around 100 protesters lined the Ardoyne Road blowing whistles, sounding horns and shouting at parents. At one point up to 20 protesters surged against police lines and cups of tea were thrown at two women.
The return journey from the school was delayed for 30 minutes as police brought in over 50 extra officers in riot gear, swelling the security force presence to around 250. Protesters were pushed back down side streets away from the Ardoyne Road. The four-minute return journey passed without incident.
Before setting off from Ardoyne, the chairman of the school board of governors, Father Aidan Troy, told parents of a threat from the loyalist paramilitary Red Hand Defenders.
"They said if we walked up the road there would be snipers. The parents decided to walk up because their children were already up there. When we were going up, firecrackers were thrown and it heightened nervousness. The tension was unbelievable," he said.
An SDLP representative for north Belfast, Mr Alban Magennis, said the policing of the protest was too loose. "It allowed people to throw tea and coffee over people within arm's length," he said. "The policing of this so-called protest must be more effective before lives are lost."
Meanwhile, workmen at the Brookfield Business Centre escaped injury when a pipe bomb was thrown from a loyalist area.