Star Metro - N.Ireland town hit by second night of unrest

Hundreds of protestors, many of them masked, took to the streets of Ballymena, throwing petrol bombs, bottles and masonry as police responded with water cannon, an AFP journalist said.

There was a heavy police presence in one area of the town, some 30 miles (48 kilometres) northwest of Belfast, as the protesters set fire to a car and barricades. Police also fired plastic baton rounds to disperse the crowds, an AFP journalist saw.

Later as night fell, crowds began to disperse in Ballymena although smaller groups still milled around the town centre. And local media reported that protestors were also blocking roads in Belfast.

The unrest first erupted Monday night after a vigil in a neighbourhood where an alleged serious sexual assault happened on Saturday.

"This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police," Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said Tuesday.

He told a press conference: "It was racist thuggery, pure and simply, and any attempt to justify it or explain it as something else is misplaced."

Tensions in the town, which has a large migrant population, remained high throughout the day on Tuesday, as residents described the scenes as "terrifying" and told AFP those involved were targeting "foreigners".

Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter, local media reports said.

The trouble began when masked people "broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties", police said.

Houses and businesses were attacked, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said, adding it was investigating "hate attacks".

Security forces also came under "sustained attack" with petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks thrown by rioters, injuring 15 officers including some who required hospital treatment, according to the force.

One 29-year-old man was arrested and charged with riotous behaviour, disorderly behaviour, attempted criminal damage and resisting police.

Four houses were damaged by fire, and windows and doors of homes and businesses smashed.

Cornelia Albu, 52, a Romanian migrant and mother-of-two who lives opposite a house targeted in the attacks, said her family had been "very scared".

"Last night it was crazy because too many people came here and tried to put the house on fire," Albu, who works in a factory, told AFP.

She said she would now have to move, but was worried she would not find another place to live because she was Romanian.

- 'Scared as hell' -

A 22-year-old woman who lives next door to a burnt-out house in the same Clonavon neighbourhood said the night had been "terrifying".

"People were going after foreigners, whoever they were, or how innocent they were," the woman, who did not want to share her name for security reasons, told AFP.

"But there were local people indoors down the street scared as hell."

Northern Ireland saw racism-fuelled disorder in August after similar riots in English towns and cities triggered by the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport, northwest England.

According to Mark, 24, who did not share his last name, the alleged rape on the weekend was "just a spark".

"The foreigners around here don't show respect to the locals, they come here, don't integrate," said Mark.

Another man was halfway up a ladder, hanging a Union Jack flag in front of his house as a "precaution -- so people know it's not a foreigner living here".

"Ballymena has a large migrant population, a lot of people actually work in the town and provide excellent work," Mayor Jackson Minford told AFP.

"Last night unfortunately has probably scared a lot of people. We are actively working to identify those responsible and bring them to justice," said Henderson.

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the "disorder" in Ballymena was "very concerning".

P.Beaulieu--SMC