Belfast violence 'worst in 20 years'

There is still a high security presence in north Belfast

A senior police officer has described rioting in north Belfast over the past few months as the worst in the city for 20 years.

Fourteen police officers were injured in the disturbances in the Limestone Road area on Sunday afternoon and evening.

Four officers were wounded when a blast bomb was thrown at their vehicle on Halliday's Road on Sunday evening.

Stones, bottles and fireworks were also thrown during the sectarian clashes which erupted in the Limestone Road area of the city at about 1500 BST.

About 200 people were involved in the trouble, according to the police.

On Sunday evening Catholic and Protestant homes were attacked at Newington Street and Hallidays Road off the Limestone Road.

Alan McQuillan: "Violence worst since 1980s"

Meanwhile, a 33-year-old woman has been treated in hospital for cuts to her head after she was attacked on the Crumlin Road.

The incident happened shortly before 1030 BST on Monday when two men allegedly got out of a car and attacked the woman.

RUC assistant chief constable Alan McQuillan said: "Some of the rioting that we have seen in north Belfast this summer is the worst we have seen in Belfast really since the Hunger Strikes.

"It is that level of ferocity and violence. And when we are dealing with that level of violence and ferocity, we are going to find that there are casualties.

"We do everything we can to minimize them. But the nature of the violence we are seeing makes that very difficult."

Mr McQuillan added that he believed paramilitaries had been involved in recent disorder in the area.

"The reality is that in all those areas, on both sides, once rioting starts the paramilitaries are there and they have an impact on it," he said.

Pipe bombs found

Meanwhile, the police investigating the disturbances in north Belfast have recovered a number of unexploded pipe bombs in the area of Newington and Parkend Streets.

They also found the remains of five devices which had exploded.

The crude bombs were found in police searches following Sunday night's rioting.

Nigel Dodds: "People as young as 12 are involved"

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds said violence in the area appeared to be escalating.

"What is worrying over the weekend is that a number of areas, like Cambrai Street and also Clifton Park Avenue, had trouble which they have not had for some considerable time," he said.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Protestant and Catholic homes off the Crumlin Road were attacked.

A pensioner, living in the Protestant Cambrai Street was in her home when it came under attack.

Martha Parsons holds the brick used in an attack on her home

Eighty-year-old Martha Parsons said she had no idea why she was targeted.

"Up here it is just getting terrible. I don't know what we were targeted for, the house next door got it too," she said.

Meanwhile, army bomb experts have defused a pipe bomb type device in the area.

The object was found in the back yard of a house in Newington Street on Monday.

Earlier, a second device was defused after it was found outside a house on the Woodvale Road.

On Sunday, a bomb went off at the Brookfield Mill on the Crumlin Road. A second device did not explode and was taken away for forensic examination.

Seven police officers were injured and there was also slight damage to a car and building.

Shots were also fired during clashes between rival factions in a neighbouring part of north Belfast.