Nineteen UK police officers were injured during Thursday's clashes between police and rioters on Springfield Road in Belfast, Jonanthan Roberts, the Northern Ireland police assistant chief constable, said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2021) Nineteen UK police officers were injured during Thursday's clashes between police and rioters on Springfield Road in Belfast, Jonanthan Roberts, the Northern Ireland police assistant chief constable, said on Friday.
"During last night's disorder a total of 19 officers and a police dog sustained injuries," Roberts said in a statement published by the police.
He added that the total number of police officers injured during the attacks was 74.
Police deployed a water cannon to disperse the crowds. British media reported that this had happened for the first time in six years.
Northern Ireland has witnessed a spike of violence with predominantly young people rioting in cities and towns. The unrest was sparked by certain conditions of the UK's withdrawal from the EU stipulating customs posts between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland, which previously had no physical borders either with Ireland or the rest of the UK before Brexit.
A more immediate reason for protests was Northern Ireland's prosecutor's office deciding not to punish nationalists from the Sinn Fein party for their presence at the funeral of a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) militant, in June 2020, despite strong restrictive measures against the spread of COVID-19. This exacerbated the conflict between loyalists, who support unity with the UK, and republicans, who seek independence.
On April 8, Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Micheal Martin and his UK counterpart, Boris Johnson, called for calm and dialogue, as "violence is unacceptable."
