Violence again flared in north Belfast this evening. Several RUC officers have been injured in the clashes which are centred in the Ardoyne, Limestone Road and White City areas.
Petrol and blast bombs have been thrown in scenes that are reminiscent of the violence in the city throughout the summer. In the Ardoyne Road area rioters hurled petrol bombs, bricks and bottles at each other. The RUC say that petrol bombs were also thrown at North Queen Street.
An object, believed to be a pipe bomb, was thrown into the garden of a house at Serpentine Gardens off the Whitewell Road. The violence follows clashes as parents brought young children to a Catholic primary school in north Belfast this morning.
Unionist politicians have blamed Republicans for the violence. Sinn Féin in turn has blamed the outbreak on the UDA.
Earlier, the Red Hand Defenders warned Catholic parents to keep their children away from a mainly Protestant area at the centre of the inter-community conflict. The Loyalist paramilitary group also warned that it would take action against the RUC if any Protestants were hurt.
Meanwhile, the North's Security Minister Jayne Kennedy has condemned the trauma that the girls, some as young as four, were put through today.
Education Minister Martin McGuinness said that he was dismayed at the situation in which innocent young children some on their first day of school had found themselves. He added that no child should be fearful of going to school and he encouraged everyone with influence to work towards an immediate resolution of the problem.
The RUC Chief Constable said that parents at Holy Cross had to make their own choice about the access route to be used to the school tomorrow, although the governors had advised them to use the Crumlin Road entrance through an adjoining secondary school.
Asked about complaints over police tactics by Unionist representatives Sir Ronnie Flanagan said that they would not stand by and tolerate violence against their own officers. He said that there was no justification for attempting to block the path of children going to primary school.
Police clashed with Protestant demonstrators who tried to close off the way to the Holy Cross primary school in Ardoyne this morning. There were no such incidents as about 100 pupils left the school this afternoon. Most children were collected by car or taxi and departed by the back entrance, going through another Catholic school to get access onto the Crumlin Road.
This morning, after the Catholic parents and children reached the school with a police escort, a mother of one of the pupils suffered a head injury when stones and bottles were thrown at the school gates by Loyalist protestors.
The protesting residents say they are being forced out of their homes on the route to the school. They began a blockade in June after claiming they had been subjected to abuse and intimidation by Republicans. Attempts failed over the summer holidays to try to negotiate a settlement between the two sides, following violence in the area earlier this year.
The parents of many pupils said that they received a torrent of abuse today. Many parents said that the children were distressed and brought them back home using an alternative route on the Crumlin Road.
Later there were minor scuffles as the RUC moved a crowd of Nationalists at the other end of Ardoyne Road. Many Catholic parents took their children home because they said they had been upset by the confrontation. However, around 100 pupils stayed. Small groups of Nationalists and Loyalists kept a vigil at either side of the disputed area.
RUC Assistant Chief Constable for Belfast, Alan McQuillan, warned the protesters that his officers would be there every day if necessary to ensure the pupils got to class.
Chairman of the Board of Governors of the school said that they were recommending that parents and children use an alternative route to the school as a temporary measure.
This morning the Northern Ireland Office Minister, Des Browne, called on all community leaders in the area to do everything in their power to ensure restraint and the minimum disruption possible to the students returning to the school.
In a separate development, a man is in hospital after being wounded in a paramilitary style shooting in Belfast. The incident took place just after 11pm yesterday in an entry off Stratheden Street.
In the north of the city, the Limestone Road and Tigers Bay areas were reported to have been quiet overnight following riots yesterday evening. Police came under attack from groups of youths who threw stones, bottles and petrol bombs.
