Northern Irish police say people in fear of lives after second night of rioting

By Clodagh Kilcoyne

BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -People in the Northern Irish town of Ballymena are in fear of their lives after a second night of rioting, police said on Wednesday, amid fears that the violence could spread across the British province.

So far 32 officers have been injured after being bombarded with petrol bombs, bricks and fireworks since the trouble began on Monday, when protests and anger over an alleged sexual assault in the town turned to rioting.

There were protests and disorder in the capital Belfast and other towns across Northern Ireland on Tuesday, and Ryan Henderson, the assistant chief constable of the province's police force (PSNI), said they were preparing for more disorder.

"People are waking up today feeling genuine fear for their lives and their livelihoods," Henderson told reporters.

"We have seen a number of calls over social media for protest activity this evening at various places within Northern Ireland. It can be difficult at times to make a really strong assessment as to how much that will be and where exactly that will be, but we saw some of that last night."

The trouble erupted after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in Ballymena, located 28 miles (45 km) from Belfast.

The charges were read to the boys via a Romanian interpreter, the BBC reported. A lawyer told the court that the two teenagers denied the charge and they were remanded in custody until July 2.

Four properties that were damaged by fire in the subsequent rioting are being treated by police as racially-motivated "hate crimes".

"For the second day, the focus of this mob violence has been upon our diverse communities and the police," Henderson said.

"When I have spoken loudly about the racist thuggery on our streets, that is not to say that I am labeling communities as racist, but when I watch families having their doors kicked in who happened to be from our diverse communities, I have to call that out for the racist behaviour that it is."

One Romanian resident told the Irish Times on Tuesday that she was putting a British flag on her front window in a bid to avoid being targeted. Another door had a British and Filipino flag with a message saying "Filipino lives here".

HOUSE BURNED OUT

Police in Northern Ireland sporadically come under attack whenever tensions rise in parts of the British region, 27 years after a peace deal ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed there.

Officers in riot gear and driving armoured vans responded on Tuesday with water cannon and non-lethal rounds, known as attenuated energy projectiles, after being attacked by petrol bombs, scaffolding and rocks as cars were set ablaze.

Separate protests on Tuesday blocked off some roads in Belfast, another Reuters witness said.

Bins were set alight and bottles and masonry thrown at police following protests in the towns of Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus, police said.

Henderson said they had asked for extra police to be sent from the British mainland to support his force, saying social media was being used to stoke some of the violence.

The British and Irish governments as well as local politicians condemned the violence.

"There is absolutely no justification for the disgraceful attacks we have seen on PSNI officers, and on people’s homes and property," Britain's Northern Ireland Minister Hilary Benn said.

"This appalling violence and vandalism must cease immediately, and those involved will be brought to justice."

(Additional reporting by Amanda Ferguson in Belfast; Writing by Padraic Halpin and Michael Holden; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar, Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones)