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Molotov a Cluan Place

Hate crime probe over Cluan Place petrol bomb attack

Cluan Place

Police and political leaders from both communities have called for calm after a petrol bomb attack on a Protestant enclave in east Belfast sparked violence that saw a four-year-old girl injured.

The petrol bomb was thrown into Cluan Place – 23 unionist households surrounded by a peace barrier in a nationalist area – just before 8pm on Sunday. A short time later, police arrested a 15-year-old youth on suspicion of possession of a petrol bomb, attempted arson and possession of a Class B drug.

Police are treating this original attack as “a hate crime”. It was the first incident in several days of violence that resulted in a four-year-old girl in the Short Strand suffering a minor hand injury from a petrol bomb police believe came from the unionist side.

UUP MLA Michael Copeland said: “Police are dealing with this all as fairly as they can. But I have difficulty with the fact that at the start, the PSNI were describing the first petrol bomb as non-sectarian when it was thrown from Short Strand into Cluan Place.

“I have had no reports of petrol bombs being thrown from Cluan Place for a long time, but although they have reduced in number, petrol bombs are still coming into Cluan Place from Short Strand. This should all stop before it gets out of control.”

The first petrol bomb landed in the garden of Kerry Irvine, who lives in Cluan Place. “I was out the back on Sunday putting rubbish out when I saw a big fire coming at me and I ran inside,” she said. “Police put it on the news it was not sectarian but it came over the peace line. I don’t know anyone else who gets bricks and petrol bombs over their back fence.”

She said missiles are thrown into her garden “every other day” and that she believes the petrol bomb that injured the girl was thrown from the unionist side as “retaliation” for the bomb in her garden.

A Short Strand woman said on Facebook that “unfortunately, it was the Strand ones who started [it] as kids threw a petrol bomb into Cluan Place yesterday. Apparently the unionists are only retaliating … I’m sitting in my house and four young boys from Short Strand have just thrown petrol bombs each over the wall again about half an hour ago”.

Mr Copeland said some unionists were claiming that the petrol bomb which injured the girl had been thrown by nationalists from Bryson Street and bounced back into their area. However police responded that it was “believed to have been thrown over the interface” from the unionist side, adding that detectives are appealing for witnesses.

On Tuesday another petrol bomb was thrown from Bryson Street into Cluan Place, police said, but Mr Copeland said two were thrown. Around 80 youths had gathered in the area on Sunday night as tensions grew and a 39-year-old man was arrested, police said.

Mr Copeland said that a skip of bricks was removed from the Short Strand on Monday night, but police said this was repeated across Belfast to protect the US presidential cavalcade.

Sinn Fein councillor Niall O Donnghaile was furious at claims that nationalists had thrown the petrol bomb which injured the young girl.

“We need to get a grip on all this going into the marching season rather than going into a chronology of events,” he said. “I want Michael Copeland to sit down with me for talks.”

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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