North's police to use water cannons

Water cannon will be used in a bid to clear sectarian rioters off the streets of Belfast, police have said.

Although there were no reports of violence in the area last night, nearly 30 officers have been injured and six civilians needed hospital treatment following clashes over the past week.

But in bid to prevent further devastating clashes, Acting Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn confirmed new plans last night.

One gunman wounded by police is expected to be identified by DNA tests taken from bloodstains where he was hit, he disclosed.

Two vehicles sent from Belgium could be deployed within hours once officers complete their training.

Mr Cramphorn insisted the action was not a long-term solution to the worst rioting of the past four years.

He told members of his policing board: ‘‘I have to stress that the water cannons are not a cure-all.’’

Mr Cramphorn said six people had been shot and 28 of his officers injured during bitter clashes between loyalist and republican mobs in east Belfast in the past week.

Protestants on the Lower Newtownards Road and Catholics across a peaceline in the Short Strand enclave fired at least 40 live rounds, with police returning 61 baton rounds.

Just two arrests have been made, but more are expected in the coming days.

Mr Cramphorn claimed a gunman dragged away after being wounded by police during the shooting should be caught.

‘‘We have bloodstains and that gives us his DNA,’’ he said.

Although police chiefs have blamed the Ulster Volunteer Force for orchestrated loyalist attacks, Mr Cramphorn could not confirm if the Provisional IRA was behind republican violence.

‘‘In respect of nationalist paramilitaries there are three groups operating in the Short Strand area,’’ he said.

‘‘I cannot be sure which of these three groups were responsible for the shots fired.’’

But Sammy Wilson, a hardline Democratic Unionist board member insisted the IRA was heavily involved in a new stage to its campaign.

During the briefing, Mr Wilson also claimed the acting police chief told him 75 officers made emergency applications to be rehoused following the break-in at Castlereagh police complex in east Belfast in March.

‘‘As the average cost is just under £100,000 the total bill is likely to reach £6-7 million,’’ he claimed.

But it was the street violence in Belfast which dominated the agenda.

Along with the two water cannon borrowed from Belgium, the Government has agreed to purchase a similar vehicle for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

It is not expected to be ready for use until next year.

As the situation in east Belfast remained tense, fears grew that the disorder was spreading to other parts of the city.

In west Belfast a fortified police station in the nationalist Springfield Road was hit by up to 50 petrol bombs in an attack last night.

And after rioters left the Ormeau Bridge in south Belfast strewn with rubble, Women’s Coalition MLA Monica McWilliams called for youth workers to ‘‘nip it in the bud’’.

The fighting comes ahead of Northern Ireland’s volatile marching season.

With the ban on Orangemen walking down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh, still the most contentious issue, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called for the current Parades Commission to be scrapped.

He said it should be replaced with a tribunal-based system to protect the rights of all sides.

In a scathing attack on the current body, Mr Trimble claimed it had failed to sort out the festering and volatile Drumcree stand off because it was too focused on public order concerns.

Demanding fundamental changes to the legislation, he said: ‘‘We are not going to resolve the problems that exist in Northern Ireland without a greater respect for rights.’’