13 police officers hurt in ‘orchestrated’ attack

THIRTEEN police officers were injured after sectarian rioting erupted in a bitterly divided Belfast neighbourhood, it emerged yesterday.

Petrol bombs were launched at security forces in what police called a “sustained and orchestrated attack” from the staunchly Catholic Short Strand enclave. One baton round was fired in a bid to disperse hundreds of rioters as sectarian tensions switched from the north of the city.

Two of the wounded officers were detained in hospital following the disorder, which started when missiles were hurled hurled across a peace line at Protestant homes in Cluan Place on Saturday. Nationalists insisted their houses had endured a day-long barrage of stones and bottles. The trouble flared as loyalist Apprentice Boys who had returned from a major demonstration in Derry dispersed on the Albertbridge Road.