Petrol bombs thrown in fourth night of Belfast riots
Police have fired a number of baton rounds during a fourth night of trouble in north Belfast.
A car was set on fire and petrol bombs were thrown during a night of sporadic violence in Ardoyne.
Two men in their late teens and early 20s were arrested. One was released pending further inquiries.
Earlier, on Wednesday, a coffee jar bomb was found during an alert in the Highbury Gardens area. The army was called to the scene.
Sinn Fein blamed dissident republicans for the device and said they showed “absolute disregard” for the people of the area.
“This is the summer holidays, many children are off school and could have found this device,” a spokeswoman said.
“The repercussions do not bear thinking about.”
There has been criticism that the police are not going in to arrest rioters, but policing board member Basil McCrea who was at Ardoyne with senior PSNI officers to observe, defended the way the police were handling the trouble.
“I am quite convinced that the tactics they are using are the right ones. But it does take a lot of time and it does tie up a lot of police officers,” he said.
“It is probably the best of a bad situation.”
