Police in the North are investigating an alleged assault on a 16-year-old girl at a bonfire in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

A 21-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with an attack on a Sinn Féin assembly member in Co Antrim, police said today.

A gang of youths smashed the windscreen of a fire engine as they attacked a crew called to a hoax blaze, it emerged today.

Sectarian tensions were on a knife-edge tonight as Orangemen returned to flashpoint north Belfast amid fears of a full-scale riot.