Some 28 police officers and 10 civilians were injured in sustained rioting in north Belfast at the weekend. Up to 800 people were involved in the trouble, which started after the Scottish Cup final in which Rangers beat Celtic 3-2.
A Protestant man was shot in the legs in the North Queen Street area. Petrol bombs and fireworks were thrown at police, who fired 40 plastic bullets. Two police officers were seriously hurt. One suffered a suspected fractured skull and the other has been treated for spinal injuries.
The rioting took place at five separate locations in north Belfast. It began on Saturday afternoon and continued to early Sunday. The local DUP MP, Mr Nigel Dodds, blamed nationalists, but Sinn Féin said loyalists had started the trouble and claimed it was orchestrated by the UDA.
There were reports that police came under fire in Ardoyne. The police officer who sustained the head injury was struck by a breeze-block thrown from the roof of a shop in Ardoyne.
The trouble started when crowds left the pubs after the Scottish Cup final.
Rival groups engaged in hand-to-hand fighting in the Crumlin Road area.
Sinn Féin said a youth was knocked down by a security forces' Land-Rover in North Queen Street.
The PSNI yesterday claimed to have identified 15 people involved in the weekend rioting.
Meanwhile, a 24-year-old man has been seriously injured in an attack near Coleraine, Co Derry. He sustained serious head injuries when he was beaten with a baseball bat in Woodend Park in Articlave.