A man is set to appear in court charged with attempted murder over a stabbing attack following a night of violence in Belfast.
People were forced to flee their homes and multiple cars and homes were set alight in the disorder on Tuesday that followed Monday’s knife attack in the north of the city.
The accused (30), who is Sudanese, is also charged with possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place and making threats to kill.
He is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates’ Court later on Wednesday.
Following widespread condemnation of the incident, anti-immigration demonstrations took place across Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening, with a number descending into disorder.
A Glider bus was set alight in east Belfast, prompting all bus and train services to be suspended.
In Lendrick Street in Belfast, several cars were set alight and Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) officers had to remove some residents from houses after they caught fire.
A number of houses and vehicles were set on fire near the Ligoniel Road area of Belfast and a police car was set alight in Portadown.
An NIFRS spokesperson said it had been a “busy evening responding to a high volume of fire calls”.
They added: “Between 7pm and midnight our Regional Control Centre have managed 256 calls resulting in attendance at 62 incidents.
“The majority of these incidents were in the Greater Belfast Area where an additional 21 fire appliances from across Northern Ireland were required to meet demand.”
Vehicles set on fire on Lendrick Street in Belfast. Photograph: PA/PA Wire
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said officers had worked alongside partner agencies “responding to incidents as they arise and helping to keep people safe”.
Political leaders criticised the violence.
Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long said “bad-faith” actors stoking racial tensions on social media should “step away from their keyboards” following the violence in Belfast.
“If you weren’t interested in Northern Ireland on Sunday, you don’t need to show interest in Northern Ireland today.”
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, Long said: “Let us get on with the job of trying to bring calm to our streets, of trying to rebuild our community, of reassuring both people who live in North Belfast and across Belfast.
“We recognise in Northern Ireland that immigration is a vexed issue, and there is a conversation that we can have rationally and logically about that, but there are others who weaponise it to stir up racial tensions, to stir up division in communities.”
Long said the disorder was not “logical” or “reasonable”.
“The events that took place the night before caused both fear and consternation, and indeed anger in many parts of Northern Ireland, and we understand that that’s the case, but what happened last night is not a logical or reasonable response to that incident,” she said.
“The person responsible has now been arrested and charged, and I think it’s important that people allow the justice system and the PSNI to do their job.”
Vehicles set on fire by protesters on Lendrick Street in Belfast, as disorder flared in response. Photograph: PA
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, condemned the “outright thuggery” on Tuesday night.
“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she said.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said: “Taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said: “The scenes of disorder we have witnessed in some parts of Northern Ireland this evening are only damaging communities and putting innocent lives at risk.
“There is no justification at all for this type of destruction and thuggery.”
Sinn Féin MLA for South Belfast Deirdre Hargey has expressed disgust at the violent incidents in Belfast. She told Newstalk Breakfast and RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland her first thought at learning of the incidents had been “absolute” disgust.
“We witnessed shameful things last night which have no place on our streets. And I believe the vast majority of people do not want to see this. And when you see family homes burnt to the ground, when you see masked men and mobs of them marching down the street and trying to identify minority ethnic households, it’s reminiscent of the pogroms that took place in Belfast in 1969 in which Catholic homes were targeted in the same way.
“It’s a reminder for all that none of us want to go back to those times and we all must do what we can in order to stop this violence that’s taken place and to say that it has no place on our streets or in our society.”
Hargey agreed with comments made by local pastor Jack McKee who earlier told Morning Ireland that black people’s homes were being targeted.
“You can see that from the videos and what they were shouting In terms of no immigrants here. This was the language. They were going along streets.”
They were completely masked up. Some of them were armed. They broke into houses. They broke windows. And they actually set the insides of the homes on fire. So as we awake this morning, we can still smell the smoulder and smoke of homes that have been completely torched and can’t be lived in. “What we have also witnessed on our TV screens and on social media are young children, women, older people who had to flee their homes, some of them in the back of police Land Rovers in the darkness of night where hotels and other accommodation had to be stood up in order to house people.
“I think these are shameful scenes of disorder and lawlessness that we witnessed in parts of Belfast last night. And I think those responsible need to be held to account.”
The victim of Monday’s knife attack, a man aged in his 40s, remains in a serious condition in hospital receiving treatment for serious eye, face and back wounds.
Detectives have said there is no indication Monday’s knife attack was terror-related.
The PSNI has opened a “critical incident” in response to the incident, which was captured on video and appears to show a man stabbing at the victim’s head and neck while he was lying on the ground.
The remains of a Glider bus, set fire by protesters, on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast. Photograph: PA/PA Wire
The clip shows people, including a man later named as Maitiu Mag Tighearnan using a hurling stick, intervening to stop the man attacking the victim in the Kinnaird Avenue residential area close to the busy Antrim Road in north Belfast.
A kitchen knife was recovered from the scene.
Tighearnan was filmed hitting the assailant five times on the head with the hurley as other people kicked and punched him.
In a social media post, Tighearnan said he “just landed there by chance” and managed to “protect a young lad”. He is understood to have been visiting his partner, who lives on the street where the attack took place.
Asked on social media why he had intervened and whether he had waited for the police, he said: “Mate, I just landed there by chance. Cops were called before I even got out to protect a young lad. As if waiting on cops was my first thought.”
Police revealed details on the arrested man’s immigration status and how he travelled to the UK.
He entered Northern Ireland across the Border in February 2023 having flown to Dublin from Paris.
The suspect claimed asylum upon arrival and in September 2023 was granted leave to remain in the UK until 2028.
Right-wing commentators from England and the US, including the MP Rupert Lowe and billionaire owner of X Elon Musk, posted about the attack. Musk shared a list of potential protest areas in the UK and wrote: “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!”
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, said: “The horror of what you have seen in Belfast is a direct result of treacherous Tory and Labour immigration policy. Reform has already announced a total ban on visas for anyone from Sudan. Enough is enough.”
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a far-right agitator who refers to himself as Tommy Robinson, shared the video of the Belfast attack and posted a call for protests in central London and elsewhere in the UK. – PA/Guardian