A second evening of racist violence after the indictment of two teenagers for attempted rape – Liberation

A new evening of violence in the city of Ballymena, northeast of theNorthern Ireland. Helters broke out between demonstrators and police after a vigil in tribute to a young girl, who accuses two teenagers of sexual assault. Already the day before, violence with racist motivation according to the police, had also broken out following a rally in support of the victim and his family. The rally followed the appearance of two fourteen -year -old Romanian teenagers for attempted rape.

Housing on Monday evening was burnt down and 15 police officers were injured. Hooded individuals have built barricades in the street and attacked houses before attacking the police, throwing in their direction Molotov cocktails and bricks. Four houses were damaged by fires. Other dwellings and shops have seen their broken windows and their drives.

The next day, a heavy police system was deployed in the city of 31,000 inhabitants, located about fifty kilometers from Belfast. Hundreds of demonstrators, some of whom have masked, have gathered. Fireworks and glass bottles were thrown into the police, which used a water cannon to disperse the demonstrators.

A spokesperson for the police invited to avoid this area, saying that the Clonavon Terrace district faced « Serious disorders ». Part of the demonstrators began to disperse at nightfall. Troubles have also been reported in Belfast, the capital of the British province.

« Violence was clearly motivated by racial considerations and aimed at an ethnic minority, as well as the police »said Ryan Henderson, a police officer who has also condemned these attacks « In the fiest terms », worrying about a « Rise of hateful attacks of a racial nature in Northern Ireland ». A large immigrant population lives in this city of 31,000 inhabitants, about fifty kilometers from Belfast.

Several Romanian nationals have expressed their doubts and concerns following these evenings of violence. Cornelia alb, 52, lives in front of one of the burned dwellings. « Last night it was insane, so many people came here to set fire to this house. » Employed in a factory and mother of two, she says she must “Moving because we don’t know what can happen after that. My family was really scared. ”

Last summer, the British province had been shaken, as in other places in the United Kingdom, by anti-immigration riots Following the murders of three girls in a knife attack, in northwestern England.