The police were tonight accused of not doing enough to stop sectarian rioting in Belfast which involved up to 400 people and raged for eight hours.

Up to 400 Nationalists and Loyalists clashed during eight hours of rioting in Belfast, police said today.

Fresh disturbances broke out in east Belfast tonight when rival nationalist and loyalist crowds hurled missiles at each other over the sectarian interface.

The situation at a sectarian flashpoint in east Belfast is spiralling out of control, unionist politicians and Protestant clergymen in the district warned tonight.

A pipe bomb thrown into the nationalist Short Strand area in east Belfast today was intended to kill Catholics, Sinn Fein said.