Thirteen people are due in court today after a second night of rioting across the North over the refusal of the Parades Commission to allow an Orange Order march through a Catholic area on Saturday.
The 13 will appear in Laganside Magistrates Court, a police spokeswoman said. One man has been charged with attempted murder.
Northern Secretary Peter Hain
Loyalist gunmen opened fire on the PSNI and the British army for a second night running, and blast, petrol and paint bombs were hurled at security lines across Belfast and in parts of Co Antrim and Down.
The PSNI said at least ten police officers were injured last night; 32 were wounded during the first night of sectarian violence linked to an Orange Order march rerouted away from Catholic homes.
Police said a number of shots were fired at them on the nearby Newtownards Road, and at the army on the Donegall Road, south Belfast.
Soldiers fired live rounds in response and a man was later admitted to hospital suffering from a gunshot wound. He was later charged with attempted murder.
New Barnsley police station in the west of the city was hit by explosions. A car and van were crashed into its metal gates and attempts were made to set a security hut ablaze with gas cylinders.
Cars and vans were hijacked and set on fire throughout Belfast. As the trouble intensified a stretch of the Westlink motorway route through Belfast was also shut.
In Bangor, Co Down, a bus was burnt out by loyalists who ordered passengers out after stealing their personal possessions.
A pregnant woman and a man were dragged from their car by a gang during an attempted hijacking, while in Glengormley, Co Antrim, a building and three vehicles were wrecked by petrol bombers who targeted a car sales showroom.
Plastic bullets and water canons were directed at rioters who set a bank and shops alight at Cloughfern, Newtownabbey, just outside north Belfast. Attacks were also carried out in Banbridge, Co Down, and Glengormley and Ballymena in Co Antrim.
Gangs of youths also gathered in the village of Ahoghill, Co Antrim, which has been blighted by several weeks of sectarian attacks against Catholics.
The disorder forced the cancellation of Mass at Harryville Catholic church in Ballymena, which has been plagued by sectarian attacks on Catholics in the past.
Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde is today briefing Northern Secretary Peter Hain on the violence. Mr Orde described the loyalist rioting as some of the most dangerous faced by any police force in UK history.
Mr Hain said this morning: "We have a situation ... with the police facing attempted murder and police facing violence which is on a scale that we haven't seen for many years.
He said the disturbances had taken place in long-deprived areas with a history of such violence. "The difference is that these are now loyalist groups turning on themselves ... turning on their own communities rather than attacking Catholics and nationalist areas as was the case in the past."
Detectives are studying CCTV footage in a bid to identify the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitaries behind much of the chaos.