Gang of youths attacks police during rampage through town centre

POLICE in Northern Ireland were attacked with bottles and other missiles early yesterday after a crowd of youths went on the rampage through a town in Co Down.

Trouble flared in Newry Street, Kilkeel, at around 3am, a police spokesman said.

Several commercial premises were attacked as police attempted to contain the disturbances.

Part of the crowd then attacked the police station at Newry Road before dispersing when more officers were drafted into the area, he added.

There were no reports of any injuries.

Windows were broken at the premises of a solicitor and an auctioneer during the disturbances.

Meanwhile a man was arrested yesterday after eight police officers came under gun attack in Belfast during a fresh outbreak of violence in the city.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said loyalist gunmen opened fire on three police vehicles last night.

It is understood the vehicles were responding to reports of serious disturbances in the Westland Road area of north Belfast when they came under fire. None of the officers was injured.

Earlier, three people were arrested after street disorder near a pub in the Cavehill Road in north Belfast.

East Belfast assembly member Sir Reg Empey called for the immediate installation of closed circuit television cameras after trouble also flared at a sectarian flashpoint area of east Belfast.

Loyalists claimed houses in the Protestant Cluan Place area were attacked with a range of missiles from the nationalist Short Strand area last night.

“Those cameras, I have been calling on them for months,” Sir Reg said.

“The Northern Ireland Office needs to pull its finger out.”

Sinn Féin councillor Joe O’Donnell claimed the violence had been building up throughout the day following the screening of the Old Firm match in Scotland between Celtic and Rangers.

“A number of petrol bombs have been fired from the loyalist side and we have had to get our hoses out to deal with them,” he said.

“There would seem to be a large crowd in Cluan Place, probably fuelled by drink after today’s Celtic-Rangers match.

“Obviously we are hoping that we are not going back to the kind of violence that we have seen in this area over the past few months.”

A police spokesman said a number of petrol bombs were thrown at houses in Cluan Place, but they were quickly extinguished by locals and there were no reports of injuries.

He said: “The attacks followed a night of sporadic trouble in the area.”