Police in Belfast used water cannon to disperse far-right protesters on Wednesday night as anti-immigrant unrest triggered by a knife attack entered a second night, though the violence was markedly less severe than the rampage 24 hours earlier in which masked men burned families out of their homes.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said dozens of protesters threw missiles including rocks and bottles at officers, and images from the scene showed several fires burning in the streets. The disorder followed Tuesday's far larger eruption, when hundreds of masked men set vehicles alight and attacked houses occupied by immigrant families in the north of the city.
The unrest began after a Sudanese asylum seeker was arrested and charged with attempted murder over Monday night's stabbing of a man in his 40s, who suffered serious injuries to his eyes, face and back. The victim's family appealed for calm on Wednesday and condemned the violence being carried out in his name.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the attack raised serious questions but that the response on Belfast's streets was indefensible. 'Driving people out of their homes is not the right way to respond,' he said, calling the scenes 'shocking and completely unacceptable.'
The disorder has spread beyond Northern Ireland. Demonstrators gathered outside a Southampton hotel that had previously housed asylum seekers during an 'Enough is Enough' protest on Tuesday, and police forces across Britain have stepped up monitoring of planned gatherings amplified by far-right accounts online.
Elon Musk has drawn criticism from UK politicians for a stream of posts about the Belfast attack to his hundreds of millions of followers, which critics say has helped inflame the unrest, in scenes reminiscent of the disorder that followed the Southport killings in 2024.
Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive faces particular strain: political leaders across the divide condemned the violence, but community tensions in north Belfast, where housing pressure and segregation are long-standing, have made the area a recurring flashpoint.
The Sudanese suspect remains in custody ahead of a court appearance, and the PSNI said it is working to identify those behind both nights of disorder.