Police attacked by rioters

Rioters launched a barrage of attacks on police and fire crews in the North overnight.

Three people were arrested and one man was taken to hospital after violence erupted across Ballymena, Co Antrim.

Mobs pelted police vehicles with paint and petrol bombs, stones and bottles at a bonfire site in the Doury Road estate where nationalists were commemorating the Feast of the Assumption.

Two derelict houses were then set on fire in the nearby Doury Road area.

As firefighters tried to deal with the blaze they were attack repeatedly, police said.

Across town in the Ballykeel estate a crowd again targeted officers with stones and other missiles at Orkney Drive.

A man needed hospital treatment, but his condition was not known. There were no reports of any police injuries.

Trouble flared just hours after a major security operation in parts of Northern Ireland to deal with a bitterly contested loyalist parade.

The huge Apprentice Boys march in Derry passed off without any major disturbances, while a flashpoint feeder parade in north Belfast also remained calm.