Police probe Belfast blast reports

Reports of an explosion in a riot-ravaged part of east Belfast were today being investigated by police.

The blast was said to have happened in the staunchly Catholic Short Strand area, close to the scene of weekend sectarian street fighting which left more than a dozen officers wounded.

A police spokesman said there were no initial reports of any injuries during the incident last night.

Army explosives experts were called to Strand Walk to examine a second suspicious object found nearby.

No further details were available.

Earlier, republican paramilitaries were linked to a ferocious riot which saw 13 police officers injured.

One officer received head and spinal injuries when he was hit with a breeze block and hammer during a “sustained and orchestrated attack” in the Short Strand.

Security forces were also pelted with petrol bombs as sectarian violence erupted after a loyalist band parade on Saturday.

Blaming nationalists for starting the trouble, Superintendent Graham Shields said: “Our officers were subjected to a vicious assault and everything was done to obstruct efforts to restore normality.”

He claimed a continuous supply of bottles and stones was being fed to the rioters in the Clandeboye Drive area.

Refusing to say if paramilitaries were involved, he added: “That degree of intent and ability would have taken people with good organisational skills.”

Security sources have indicated, however, that paramilitaries fuelled the tensions.

A baton round was fired at a rioter suspected of holding an explosive device. No strike was recorded.

Police said the disorder started when missiles were hurled across a peaceline at Protestant homes in Cluan Place yesterday.

But nationalists insisted their houses had endured a day-long barrage of stones and bottles.

The Short Strand area has been the centre of bitter clashes between rival Protestant and Catholic factions in recent months.

Gunmen have fought running battles and people have been burnt out of their homes as sectarian hatred threatened to boil over on several occasions.