Hundreds of police sent from UK to quell Belfast riots

Four hundred extra police officers from the UK are being deployed to Northern Ireland after a night of serious loyalist rioting in Belfast that left more than 30 officers injured and an MP hospitalised.

Democratic Unionist Party MP Nigel Dodds was taken to hospital after being hit on the head by a brick when sectarian tensions in north Belfast escalated into clashes.

Violence erupted after a government-appointed body banned Orangemen from walking through a known flashpoint for clashes between police and republicans. Eyewitnesses reported loyalist attacks on police using sticks, fireworks, swords and even part of a wall in response to the ban.

This sort of behaviour does nothing to promote ‘Britishness’ or the pro-union cause. Northern Ireland Secretary of State Theresa Villiers

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers condemned the violence and called for calm.

“I utterly condemn the rioting that took place in Belfast last night. Attacks on the police are completely unacceptable and there can be no justification for this kind of behaviour,” she said.

“This sort of behaviour does nothing to promote ‘Britishness’ or the pro-union cause. Rather it undermines it in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of people here in NI and in the rest of the UK.”

She also called on the Orange Order to call off protests over the march route.

“It is right that the Orange Order has suspended its protests. I would now appeal to the Orange Order to call them off completely…We cannot have a repeat of last night with more police officers injured and young people drawn into violence with the inevitability of criminal convictions that will blight the rest of their lives.

“The way forward has to be through dialogue.”

More than 600 mutual aid officers from England, Scotland and Wales were already in the region supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) operation as tensions surrounding the traditional Twelfth of July commemorations spiralled into disorder last night.

Trouble flared in the north of the city as police attempted to enforce a decision banning a controversial Orange Order parade from passing the republican Ardoyne area on the Crumlin Road. Disorder spread to east Belfast during six hours of violence.

PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott condemned those responsible for the trouble.

“The scenes were both shameful and disgraceful,” he said.

“We said that we were resolved to uphold the rule of law and the Parades Commission determination not to allow the return parade past the Ardoyne shop fronts. We did that. We did so impartially. We did so firmly.

“I cannot praise highly enough this morning the courage, the professionalism and the restraint of my PSNI colleagues, and those from England, Wales and Scotland who joined us in making sure the rule of law was upheld.”