Polling stations in Derry may have to close in future because of rioting youths, electoral chiefs warned at the weekend.
Children as young as eight attacked police officers with stones collected in supermarket trolleys. Up to 50 petrol bombs were also lobbed as European election ballot boxes were collected.
Northern Ireland's chief electoral officer, Mr Denis Stanley, revealed voting centres may have to be switched to avoid future violence. He said: "We soon won't have anybody who is prepared to go there.
"That means we are just going to have to close those stations and the people who would have gone to them will have to walk an extra few miles to go somewhere else."
More than a dozen paint bombs were also thrown during the trouble. One man was set alight, but others managed to put the flames out. Electoral officers and ballot boxes had to be escorted from polling stations in the Shantallow and Ballymagroarty districts of the city when they were attacked. Petrol bombs were also thrown in the Creggan as police officers removed boxes from polling stations.
In another incident, an electoral officer was showered with glass when a voting centre in the Carnhill area was attacked.
Security and electoral chiefs had decided a police presence was needed in the city after violence flared during last November's elections. - (PA)