Police refute 'inaction' claims

Officers in riot gear were struck with missiles

A senior police officer has denied allegations of both inaction and heavy-handedness by his officers during hours of rioting in north Belfast.

Chief Superintendent Mike Little said recent arrests and searches in the area were aimed at stopping criminality.

Petrol bombs, bricks and bottles were hurled at police in the loyalist Woodvale area on Monday. The UVF has been blamed. There were no injuries.

Mr Little said police had a difficult job protecting life and property.

"Is it inaction to arrest people for serious terrorist crimes, to conduct searches, which have recovered guns and evidence?" he said.

"Is it heavy-handed to place our officers in the frontline, to work to protect life and property yet also work to ensure our safety and the safety of others?

"Our policing operations and responses must be proportionate, appropriate and graduated.

"It is becoming tiresome that communities accuse us of either inaction or heavy-handedness depending on the nature and location of the policing operations."

Nigel Dodds described the violence as "unacceptable"

Five people were arrested following the attacks on police officers in the Shakill area on Monday night. Water cannon was deployed to halt the rioting.

The clashes followed hours of sustained rioting earlier in the day when police were attacked as they carried out searches in the area.

Bricks and bottles were also thrown at fire crews and several vehicles set on fire.

The trouble began as police moved in to carry out searches linked to a UVF "show of strength" on Saturday.

Some people accused the police of using "bully boy tactics" during the searches.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds, DUP, said the violence in the Shankill area was "unacceptable" and had frightened many elderly and frail people.

"I would urge people not to become involved in street violence since it is leaving in its wake a trail of destruction, putting local people in fear and setting back the regeneration of the area," he said.

Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly called on unionist leaders to use their influence to end the violence.

"The failure to engage in the dialogue required to get the political process back on track is a failure of leadership.

"The public message seems to be that there is an acceptable level of loyalist violence, particularly if it is only nationalists and working class Protestant communities that are suffering," he said.