Police in North Belfast have come under petrol bomb attack tonight from a Nationalist crowd of about three hundred. The attack took place at Brompton Park in the Ardoyne.
A number of cars were set on fire. A short distance away, at Twaddell Avenue, a crowd of about 60 Loyalists vented their fury with a sustained stoning attack on troops helping police keep the rival factions apart.
The North's First Minister, David Trimble, and Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan have condemned the disturbances and called for restraint on all sides. Meanwhile, it has been announced that the Holy Cross Primary School will reopen tomorrow.
The violence tonight follows disturbances throughout the day. At Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School, a Catholic girls' school, in North Belfast around 15 cars had their windows smashed. The school is less than a mile from the Holy Cross School in Ardoyne.
Police say that a group of six men, two of them armed, came to a car park outside the school in the Ballysillan area. Sinn Féin blamed Loyalists and called for the attacks to stop.
Twenty-five people were injured during rioting last night. The North's Police Service said that 14 officers were injured after coming under heavy attack near the school.
A spokesman said that the attack was sustained and highly orchestrated with petrol bombs, missiles, flares, bottles and acid being thrown at police lines. Seven people were hit by plastic bullets fired by the security forces.
Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan made a joint appeal for calm. The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, said that there was no excuse for the renewed violence. He said that rioting was a return to the past and no decent person would accept it.
The Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, said that the situation in Ardoyne could be resolved in a number of ways. Mr Adams said that those who organised the blockade of the Holy Cross School should make it "very, very clear" they were not going to restart that blockade.
He said that the political and other initiatives that were promised by the First and Deputy First Ministers need to be initiated urgently and there needed to be dialogue between both sections.
He said that the British Government also has to stand up against the UDA, which, he said, were quite deliberately winding up the situation. Mr Adams said that, in his view, what occurred yesterday was not spontaneous but was premeditated and quite deliberate.
