Six charged over Belfast Loyalist riots

Loyalist protests turned violent after a republican parade attempted to pass through the politically neutral Royal Avenue area, with police coming under sustained attack.

Six men aged 19, 23, 28, 35, 37 and 57 have been charged while a 37-year-old man has been released pending further enquiries.

Chief Constable Matt Baggott warned that many more arrests will follow and promised “prisons will be bulging”.

Charges include riotous assembly, riotous behaviour, obstructing police and resisting police, disorderly behaviour and one charge of and possessing a class A controlled drug.

Four of the men will appear before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Monday with the other two set to appear in September.

Tensions are now being built around a planned Sinn Fein commemoration event Tyrone for local IRA members killed while transporting a bomb 40 years ago.

‘Little sympathy’

Asked about claims of heavy handed policing Matt Baggott has called for people with complaints to contact the Police Ombudsman’s office.

“You know something – if you are in the middle of a riot and you choose to be there, I have little sympathy.”

“You saw the scaffolding poles, the metal gratings from the drains, the breaking up of paving slabs, people on roof tops trying to burn houses, people trying to set light to vans and cars and trying to drive them at police lines.

Reports indicate that fifty-six officers were injured with four requiring hospital treatment on the night. During the Loyalist disturbances cars were set on fire and businesses damaged near the city’s main shopping area.

Republican charges

Four people have been charged over trouble at a republican anti-internment bonfire in west Belfast on Thursday, two women aged 26 and 27 along with two boys aged 14 and 16 face charges of rioutous assembly.

Eight officers were injured at during the disturbances in the Divis Street area.