Politicians have condemned the violence that broke out in Belfast following a knife attack in the city.
People were forced to flee their homes and multiple cars and homes were set alight in the disorder on Tuesday that followed Monday’s knife attack in the north of the city.
A 30-year-old man has been remanded in custody at Belfast Magistrates’ Court for four weeks after being charged with the attempted stabbing murder.
The Sudanese national was also charged with possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place and making threats to kill.
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Following widespread condemnation of the incident, anti-immigration demonstrations took place across Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening, with a number descending into disorder.
A Glider bus was set alight in east Belfast, prompting all bus and train services to be suspended.
In Lendrick Street in Belfast, several cars were set alight and Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) officers had to remove some residents from houses after they caught fire.
A number of houses and vehicles were set on fire near the Ligoniel Road area of Belfast and a police car was set alight in Portadown.
A two-month-old baby was rescued during the violence in Belfast on Tuesday night, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said.
Jon Boutcher told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster: “Last night we rescued so many families.
“Taking families – a baby as young as two months – out of their address to safety, taking them to police stations.”
He added: “And by the way, these weren’t just families from ethnic minority communities, these were families from across communities that were caught up in this vile behaviour last night.
“There is absolutely no excuse for it.”
Boutcher later said two police officers were injured as they tackled violence on the streets of Belfast. “We had one officer who was injured yesterday whilst directing traffic away from one of the pockets of disorder, and he was hit with debris on the head. He’s okay,” he told a press conference.
“The second officer suffered smoke inhalation when a petrol bomb exploded near him and went under his snood, and had to be taken to hospital.”
Police said the arrested man entered Northern Ireland across the Border in February 2023 having flown to Dublin from Paris.
The suspect claimed asylum upon arrival and in September 2023 was granted leave to remain in the UK until 2028.
Political leaders criticised the violence.
Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long said “bad-faith” actors stoking racial tensions on social media should “step away from their keyboards” following the violence in Belfast.
“If you weren’t interested in Northern Ireland on Sunday, you don’t need to show interest in Northern Ireland today.”
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, Long said: “We recognise in Northern Ireland that immigration is a vexed issue, and there is a conversation that we can have rationally and logically about that, but there are others who weaponise it to stir up racial tensions, to stir up division in communities.”
Long said the disorder was not “logical” or “reasonable”.
“The events that took place the night before caused both fear and consternation, and indeed anger in many parts of Northern Ireland, and we understand that that’s the case, but what happened last night is not a logical or reasonable response to that incident,” she said.
“The person responsible has now been arrested and charged, and I think it’s important that people allow the justice system and the PSNI to do their job.”
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, condemned the “outright thuggery”.
“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she said on Tuesday night.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said: “Taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said: “The scenes of disorder we have witnessed in some parts of Northern Ireland this evening are only damaging communities and putting innocent lives at risk.
“There is no justification at all for this type of destruction and thuggery.”
Sinn Féin MLA for South Belfast Deirdre Hargey condemned the violence. She told Newstalk Breakfast and RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland her first thought at learning of the incidents had been “absolute” disgust.
“We witnessed shameful things last night which have no place on our streets. And I believe the vast majority of people do not want to see this. When you see family homes burnt to the ground, when you see masked men and mobs of them marching down the street and trying to identify minority ethnic households, it’s reminiscent of the pogroms that took place in Belfast in 1969 in which Catholic homes were targeted in the same way.
“It’s a reminder for all that none of us want to go back to those times and we all must do what we can in order to stop this violence that’s taken place and to say that it has no place on our streets or in our society.”
Hargey agreed with comments made by local pastor Jack McKee who earlier told Morning Ireland that non-white people’s homes were being targeted.
“You can see that from the videos and what they were shouting in terms of no immigrants here. This was the language.
“They were completely masked up. Some of them were armed. They broke into houses. They broke windows. And they actually set the insides of the homes on fire.
“What we have also witnessed on our TV screens and on social media are young children, women, older people who had to flee their homes, some of them in the back of police Land Rovers in the darkness of night where hotels and other accommodation had to be stood up in order to house people.”
DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the British government must crack down on illegal immigration into Northern Ireland or “significant unrest” will continue.
Lockhart, who is the MP for Upper Bann, said the Labour government must review the land border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland that allows for the free movement of people under the Common Travel Area agreement, as it has let “uncontrolled immigration get out of control”.
Speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday, Lockhart said: “That’s where this problem lies, and unless the government step up, I fear we will continue to see significant unrest within our communities.”
Detectives have said there is no indication Monday’s knife attack was terror-related.
The PSNI has opened a “critical incident” in response to the incident, which was captured on video and appears to show a man stabbing at the victim’s head and neck while he was lying on the ground.
The clip shows people, including a man using a hurley who was later named as Maitiu Mag Tighearnan, intervening to stop the knifeman attacking the victim in the Kinnaird Avenue residential area, close to the busy Antrim Road.
A kitchen knife was recovered from the scene.
Tighearnan was filmed hitting the assailant five times on the head with the hurley as other people kicked and punched him.
In a social media post, Tighearnan said he “just landed there by chance” and managed to “protect a young lad”. He is understood to have been visiting his partner, who lives on the street where the attack took place.
Asked on social media why he had intervened and whether he had waited for the police, he said: “Mate, I just landed there by chance. Cops were called before I even got out to protect a young lad. As if waiting on cops was my first thought.”
British prime minister Keir Starmer said there was no excuse for the violence in Belfast or those who fuelled it on the internet.
“The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable,” he wrote on X.
“There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere.”
British Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said online platforms were “playing a role in driving” the unrest.
X owner Elon Musk shared lists on X of locations where protests could take place – also posted by activist Tommy Robinson – and retweeted Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe’s post saying “Millions must go” with a screengrab of footage of the knife attack.
Turley told Times Radio: “We have to acknowledge and see that social media is playing a role in driving this. And I think there are bad-faith actors who are sitting often many, many miles away. It is easy for them to stoke these things up.”
Asked whether the tech tycoon was one of those bad-faith actors, she said: “He’s not living in the kind of communities where we’re seeing this kind of activity. He’s not at risk.
“It’s mums and families and people living in those homes in Belfast and on the streets of Britain who are at risk.
“He has a responsibility, everyone in public and civil life has a responsibility to call for calm and not to stoke grievance or hatred or division or tension that puts vulnerable people and our communities at risk.” – PA/Guardian
