Northern Ireland saw a second night of unrest with police using water cannons on rioters, as the Belfast stabbing attack victim’s family said they were “disgusted” by the disorder.
Police were pelted with bricks and petrol bombs by balaclava-clad rioters in Co Antrim on Wednesday evening in the latest disorder following the Belfast knife attack on Monday.
A Department for Infrastructure vehicle was left in flames as rioters confronted police near the Sandyknowes roundabout in Newtownabbey to the north west of Belfast.
Footage showed dozens of men dressed all in black and wearing face coverings gathering on Antrim Road, where they could be seen tearing bricks from properties and smashing paving stones with sledgehammers to create projectiles to throw at police.
Rioters attempted to set fire to a derelict property near a petrol station in Newtownabbey, with some throwing petrol bombs at police lines.
They could also be seen taking wheelie bins from outside homes and lighting fires in them.
In Londonderry, police reported items having been set alight on the Ardmore Road.
Public transport was suspended and some schools closed early in Northern Ireland on Wednesday amid fears of a second night of violence.
Hadi Alodid, 30, appeared in court on Wednesday, charged with attempted murder over Monday’s knife attack in which the victim, Stephen Ogilvie, lost an eye.
Mr Ogilvie, who is aged in his 40s, is in a stable condition in hospital in Belfast, his family said.
It is understood he is in an induced coma.
Mr Ogilvie’s family urged people to stop sharing “false information on social media” about the attack, adding that they were left “feeling disgusted” by the recent disorder.
In a statement issued by police on Wednesday night, they said: “We want to make it absolutely clear that to do this in response is not supported by our family, and peaceful protest is only ever the way forward.
“We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including from within our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work.
“We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility – do not do this in the name of our loved one as we do not share the same values.”
The reaction to the incident saw mobs set homes, a bus and cars on fire in Belfast on Tuesday, with people targeted based on their race.
Cabinet Office minister Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent told the House of Lords that 27 people were made homeless on Tuesday night “because people went door-to-door to try and target foreign nationals to burn them out of their homes”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “crack down on anyone who is fuelling this division”.
Social media platform X is among those to have been contacted by the communications regulator Ofcom about online content potentially linked to scenes of violence in Northern Ireland.
Alodid appeared before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning, charged with the attempted murder of Mr Ogilvie, with threats to kill an NHS radiographer and with possession of a knife.
District Judge Stephen Keown refused bail after hearing police concerns that there could be “significant public disorder” if he was released due to “strong public feeling” about the incident.
The judge warned that anyone who plans to take part in further disorder in Northern Ireland should “be prepared to go to prison”.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said social media users “highlighting properties” by posting addresses online or through apps are “putting lives at risk” and may be committing a criminal offence.
“We have received phone calls from a number of families, house owners, neighbours and members of the wider community who are extremely distressed as a result of this reckless activity,” a spokesperson for the PSNI said.
An 18-year-old man became the fourth person to be arrested following the unrest, after a petrol bomb was thrown at two police officers during disorder in Carrickfergus on Tuesday night.
Police said one officer was taken to hospital for treatment while the other was treated at the scene.
The man was arrested on suspicion of riot at an address in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, on Wednesday.
