Girl trapped under car as Belfast parade turns violent
RIOT police wearing body armour lifted a car off a teenage girl caught up in violence during a parade in Northern Ireland.
The 16-year-old was badly injured when she was hit by the vehicle, which was apparently reversed into a group of republicans in Belfast last night. Police arrested the driver and the girl was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in a serious condition.
The incident happened at a row of shops on the edge of the Ardoyne, a nationalist area in north-west Belfast close to the unionist district of Woodvale. Earlier police had been pelted with bricks, bolts, bottles and pieces of masonry following an Orange Order parade.
Fearing a riot, the officers had been trying to prevent loyalists marching from Woodvale toward Ardoyne. A tense stand-off continued last night, with missiles being thrown.
The violence followed a day of largely peaceful Twelfth of July parades – the highlight of the loyalist marching season.
Last year there was no rioting but in 2013 – when restrictions were first imposed on the Orange parade – mass violence erupted in the Woodvale area. Since then, loyalists have manned a protest camp and staged nightly parades at Woodvale, requiring a policing operation costing millions.
This year, senior police commanders have voiced concerns over the withdrawal of marshals who helped keep the peace last year.
There were calls for calm from individual political leaders before the incident.