{"id":629806,"date":"2026-06-09T19:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/629806\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:56:10","slug":"protesters-set-fire-to-bus-as-disorder-flares-in-belfast-after-knife-attack-follow-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/629806\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters set fire to bus as disorder flares in Belfast after knife attack &#8211; follow live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People beginning to gather and block roads across Northern Irelandpublished at 19:27 BST<\/p>\n<p>19:27 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\">Lili Busby<br \/>BBC News NI<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Crowds of people in coats standing around a round about\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0e98bc9c-7280-47a0-89aa-77db3ebaa074.jpg.webp\"  width=\"2500\" height=\"1875\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">We are starting to get our first reports of people out on the streets blocking roads in some areas of Northern Ireland, and so far all peacefully.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are more than 100 people gathered in Antrim. In Newtownabbey, the top of Doagh Road and Station Road is closed, with several hundred people gathered and two police vehicles in attendance. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are also protesters at the Seven Towers roundabout in Ballymena, where the PSNI are diverting traffic with dozens of people gathered. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are also reports of the Belfast Road in Bangor being closed after a big crowd gathered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Earlier today, First Minister Michelle O&#8217;Neill, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly along with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable all urged for calm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Justice Minister Naomi Long implored people not to get involved in protests that have been called for on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chief Constable Jon Boutcher called for people to let justice take its course and said there would be an increased police presence on the streets tonight and in the coming days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People beginning to gather and block roads across Northern Irelandpublished at 19:27 BST 19:27 BST Lili BusbyBBC News&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-629806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}