Police were bracing late on Wednesday, June 12, for a third night of violence in a riot-hit town in Northern Ireland as hundreds gathered on the streets armed with molotov cocktails while unrest spread to other areas.
Despite calls for calm from across the divided UK province, as dusk fell hundreds of protestors milled in the centre of northern Ballymena in a tense standoff with police armed with riot shields and backed by water cannons. Two nights of intense violence, which has left 32 police officers injured and a trail of burned-out houses and businesses, has been loudly condemned by police as "racist thuggery."
Police Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said he had appealed to police forces in England and Wales to deploy to aid his forces to quell the unrest. Riot police with dogs pushed back protestors who sporadically threw fireworks, masonry and bottles, and two petrol bombs were thrown at a line of armored police landrovers.
A leisure center in the town of Larne, some 20 miles Southeast of Ballymena, was set on fire by masked men, local media reported. Some of those who had to be evacuated from Ballymena had been given temporary shelter in the center..
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier Wednesday condemned the violence as "mindless." The riots erupted after the arrest of two teenagers accused of attempting to rape a young girl. The pair appeared in court on Monday where they asked for a Romanian interpreter. "We strongly condemn the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days and make an urgent appeal for calm across society," ministers from every party in the province's power-sharing executive said Wednesday in a joint statement.
Residents had been "terrorised" and police injured, they added, urging people to reject the "divisive agenda being pushed by a "destructive" minority. "There can never be any justification for the violence that has taken place in recent days," said the leaders/
Six people were arrested Tuesday during the second night of riots in Ballymena, around 30 miles Northwest of Belfast, and surrounding places.
Police will not confirm the ethnicity of the two teenagers who remain in custody, but areas attacked on Monday and Tuesday included those where Romanian migrants live. Traditional foes such as the republican Sinn Fein and pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party lent their voices to the joint statement calling for calm.