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Fresh trouble breaks out in west Belfast

Unrest broke out on Lanark Way in Belfast (Pic: PA Images)
Unrest broke out on Lanark Way in Belfast (Pic: PA Images)

Fresh trouble broke out in west Belfast this evening, with furniture set on fire in the middle of the Shankill Road close to where a bus was set alight earlier this month.

Police are in attendance and are monitoring a crowd gathered across Lanark Way and the Shankill Road on the loyalist side of the nearby peace line.

Meanwhile, images have emerged of a loyalist demonstration in Newtownards, Co Down.

Protesters were pictured holding an anti-Northern Ireland Protocol banner.

Police monitor the situation on Lanark Way (Pic: PA Images)

It comes after a break of around a week, following a succession of days where violence broke out following a number of loyalist protests across Northern Ireland.

The worst of the trouble came on both sides of the peace wall gates at Lanark Way on 7 and 8 April, where police used plastic bullets and water cannon against the crowds.

Protests were temporarily paused following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.

Loyalist anger at the protocol has been cited as one of the main factors behind the violence that erupted earlier this month.

Another was the decision not to prosecute 24 Sinn Féin members for Covid-19 breaches after they attended a republican funeral during the pandemic.