Night of chaos
UVF blamed for ‘serious disorder’ after bonfires dismantled
UVF is blamed for ‘serious disorder’ after bonfires are dismantled Vehicles burned, roads blocked and airport disrupted
Fire service deals with 200 emergency calls before midnight
LOYALISTS torched cars, buses and tyres on roads around east Belfast and Co Down last night.
Belfast City Airport was put on lockdown for a period as police dealt with a security alert on the Sydenham bypass.
In Newtownards, a bus was hijacked at gunpoint and set alight, while cars were burned out on the Upper Newtownards Road close to the Ulster Hospital’s A&E unit.
The violence erupted after the PSNI warned that the east Belfast UVF had threatened to orchestrate “serious disorder” against PSNI officers. It came after two Eleventh Night bonfire sites were cleared amid fears of damage to property.
In Londonderry, republican disorder flared for a fifth night after youths as young as 12 started a fire on a busy flyover.
THE Eleventh Night celebrations descended into violence in parts of Belfast and Co Down last night.
There was major disruption as cars and buses were torched on roads, and Belfast City Airport was placed under lockdown for a while as police dealt with a suspicious object on the Sydenham bypass.
The Fire Service said it had received a total of 198 emergency calls between 6pm and 11pm yesterday.
Fire crews were called out to 95 incidents, 13 bonfire-related, in the same period.
At the time of going to press, fire crews were dealing with 28 ongoing incidents.
The violence erupted j ust hours after the PSNI warned that the east Belfast UVF had threatened to “orchestrate and participate in serious disorder” against its officers.
Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd had said: “Police have received information from the community which indicates that the East Belfast UVF intend to orchestrate and participate in serious disorder in east Belfast this evening directed against my officers.”
That threat followed a day of tension after masked contractors escorted by police officers cleared two loyalist bonfire sites amid fears of potential damage to property.
Earlier vehicles were brought to a standstill on the Sydenham bypass as police responded to a security alert.
Passengers and visitors were held inside the Belfast City Airport terminal until the alert was declared over an hour later.
Masked men also obstructed the main route to the Ulster Hospital by pushing a vehicle onto the Upper Newtownards Road close to the junction with Robbs Road at around 9.45pm.
Police and firefighters were also called to tackle cars on fire nearby on the Carrowreagh
Road. Minutes later a suspected device, contained in an abandoned Vauxhall car, was discovered on the Lower Newtownards Road, close to Connswater shopping centre, prompting the area to be cordoned off close to midnight.
The complex is also where a makeshift bonfire had been erected after the Bloomfield pyre was lit early.
Meanwhile, in Co Down emergency services tackled two
separate incidents in Newtown ards at around 7.30 pm. An Ulsterbus carrying passengers was hijacked in the West Winds estate by a gang of masked men — one brandishing a suspected firearm — at around 7.30pm. It was then set on fire.
At the same time tyres were set alight on Mess in es Road, blocking the route to motorists. Drivers also faced disruption
in Bangor, with reports that the main Bangor to Belfast dual carriageway, near the loyalist Kilcooley estate, was blocked by tyres set on fire and at the nearby Sainsbury’s close to the ringroad.
The east Belfast PUP councillor John Kyle appealed for calm for the remainder of the July celebrations and called the attack on Clandeboye Drive “deplorable”.
“Things are more difficult now because of the events of the last 24 hours, it has caused some tension,” he said.
“I think most people though are determined to enjoy them- selves, it’s an important celebration for loyalist communities.
“They’ve put a lot of work and preparation into it.”
Tensions had been high in east Belfast yesterday after the High Court had ordered the height of a massive bonfire on Bloomfield Walkway to be reduced to 3 metres. But the huge pyre was set alight in the early hours.
Later, contractors guarded by police moved into Cluan Place, also in the east of the city, to remove an unsafe bonfire threatening property.
A pipe bomb was thrown over a peace wall nearby into Clandeboye Drive in the mainly na- tionalist Short Strand, hitting the roof of a terraced house before exploding on a Vauxhall Zafira.
Moments earlier two children aged three and four had been playing outside.
Their mother said she was terrified for her children’s safety.
“My car’ s destroyed, it’ s a write-off. There’s parts of the device still in the vehicle so police have taken it off,” she said.
“I’m leaving tonight, I can’t keep my children here it’s far too dangerous for them.
“They could have been killed, two seconds ago they were standing there.”
Armed police remained on the
street yesterday afternoon, with scorch marks from the explosion still visible on the ground.
“They don’t care who they kill or what they destroy,” the young mother said of the attackers.
“I’m absolutely traumatised, I won’t feel safe to come back for a few days.
“I’ve just moved here and I’ ll be moving away now. I can’t stay here with my children, it’s too dangerous.”
Her next door neighbour said there had also been golf balls and rocks thrown over the wall the night before around 11.30pm.
“It’s a disgrace and it’s all because their bonfire was knocked down. But why turn on us?
“We didn’t do it, it’s a disgrace. It’s reckless endangerment and they don’t care about anyone.”
Another resident recalled: “We were just sitting in our houses and it came out and hit a car in the street. The noise was so frightening and the smoke was everywhere.
“Everyone came running out, it was just terrifying. There were no children playing outside at the time, thank God because they would have been killed stone dead.”
Sinn Fein councillor Mairead O’Donnell called it a “reckless and indiscriminate attack”.