Four police officers have been injured and six people arrested during rioting in Belfast city centre in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The clashes erupted after three cars were stolen and set on fire and a shopfront damaged in the Bradbury Place area. Police and fire officers then came under attack from around 60 rioters, who pelted the officers with stones as they tried to move in.
By then trouble had spread to the predominantly loyalist Sandy Row area.
Four people last night were charged in connection with the disturbances. One police officer was detained in hospital with head injuries but his condition is not believed to be life threatening. A fire officer, Mr David Patton, said his colleagues would have been unable to deal with the situation if police had not supported them.
"It was a bad situation to be in if we had been on our own, but thankfully the police had the area under control quickly. There is an awful mess around there now. The shopkeepers have a lot of work to do. They [the rioters] appeared to be trying to break into shops and smash windows".
Meanwhile, at Carnmoney Parish Church on the outskirts of north Belfast, a cross-community church service was held yesterday to mark the first anniversary of the fatal shooting of a Protestant teenager, Gavin Brett (18), by the UDA. The youth was chatting to a Catholic friend outside St Enda's GAA club on the Hightown Road when he was shot dead.
Last week, Gerard Lawlor (19), was shot dead by the UDA/UFF only a few hundred metres from St Enda's GAA club. A candle-lit vigil at the scene of Mr Brett's killing was to take place last night.
Meanwhile, police in north Belfast are investigating the alleged abduction of two men. It is thought the men were kidnapped from Carlisle Circus at around 4 a.m. on Saturday and taken by car to an unknown location. They were later treated for serious burns at the Mater Hospital.
In Kilkeel, Co Down, a man was shot in the leg in what appeared to be a paramilitary-style attack yesterday morning.