Riots 'may force closure of poll stations'

Polling stations in Derry may have to close in future because of rioting youths, electoral chiefs warned tonight.

Children as young as eight attacked police officers with stones collected in supermarket trolleys.

Up to 50 petrol bombs were also lobbed as European Election ballot boxes were collected.

As police hit back at new mayor Gerry O’hEara’s claims they provoked the violence, Northern Ireland’s chief electoral officer Denis Stanley revealed voting centres may have to be switched to avoid future violence.

He said: “We soon won’t have anybody who is prepared to go there.

“That means we are just going to have to close those stations and the people who would have gone to them will have to walk an extra few miles to go somewhere else.”

More than a dozen paint bombs were also thrown during last night’s trouble.

One man was set alight, but others managed to put the flames out.

Electoral officers and ballot boxes had to be escorted from polling stations in the Shantallow and Ballymagroarty districts of the city when they were attacked.

Petrol bombs were also thrown in the Creagan area at police officers as they removed boxes from polling stations.

In another incident, an electoral officer was showered with glass when a voting centre in the Carnhill area was attacked.

Even though police officers were deployed at less than half of polling stations across Northern Ireland due to resource pressures, security and electoral chiefs had decided a presence was needed in the city after violence flared during last November’s elections to the Stormont Assembly.

Mr O’hEara, the Sinn Féin mayor, insisted private security firms should instead be brought in to normalise the election process.

He claimed: “I think we have to look at the need for the amount of PSNI people about these polling stations because in my opinion the need doesn’t exist any more.

“There’s no threat to staff and I think young people attack the PSNI jeeps when they see them.

“Everybody who works in the electoral office knows part of the problem is the high profile PSNI presence.

“These young people aren’t political, it’s just recreational.”

A police commander hit back, describing the rioters as “barbaric thugs” and urging parents to exercise more control over youngsters involved.

Inspector John Neill said one of the police vehicles attacked had suffered the worst damage he had ever witnessed.

He added: “At these various locations I could see children as young as eight and ten throwing rocks. We are talking almost 12 midnight.

“You have to ask what control, what parental measures are being taken to ensure the safety of the children.

“I wouldn’t have my child at ten years old out at this time. It’s severely disappointing that this thing is still going on.”