Page last updated at 08:10 GMT, Friday, 22 May 2009 09:10 UK

Further trouble at city interface

Bishop's Gate
There has been trouble on the interface since Friday

There has been further night of trouble at a sectarian flashpoint in Londonderry.

The police said up to 30 youths were involved in disturbances at Bishop Street, near the mainly Protestant Fountain estate, on Thursday night.

A petrol bomb was thrown during the trouble, but there were no injuries and nobody was arrested.

Rival groups have thrown stones and other missiles on the interface for the past seven nights.

On Wednesday three youths aged between 11 and 13 were arrested after a police officer was injured on the chest and leg.

One of the youths was reported to the Youth Diversion Officer, and the other two were released on bail.

A man in his 70s escaped injury after the window of his sheltered accommodation on Bishop Street was smashed on Friday.

Hazel Swartz, the officer in charge of Alexander House, said residents were "being terrorised".

"This is their home and some of them are scared to even sit in their rooms in case a window comes in round them."

On Sunday, a taxi driver suffered bruising to his arm after a large stone was thrown through the open window of his vehicle on Bishop Street.

On Monday, two policemen were injured when they were hit with bricks thrown from Nailor's Row. Petrol bombs were also thrown.

A 42-year-old man was arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour. Four other men arrested on Tuesday were released on bail.

The Mayor of Derry, councillor Gerard Diver, has appealed for an end to the trouble.

The Fountain is the last remaining Protestant estate on the predominantly Catholic west bank of the River Foyle.



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