Police in Belfast use water cannon as anti-immigrant unrest continues

Unrest in Northern Ireland: Second day of anti-immigration protests in Belfast

Police in the United Kingdom city of Belfast have used water cannon to disperse dozens of far-right protesters during a second night of unrest triggered by a knife attack involving a Sudanese refugee.

The clashes on Wednesday came as the family of the stabbing victim appealed for calm and condemned the wave of anti-immigrant violence in the city in Northern Ireland.

Police said the protesters threw “missiles” such as rocks and bottles at officers, while images from the scene showed several fires burning on the streets.

Police said officers deployed “water cannon in an attempt to maintain public order”.

But the unrest was markedly less severe than on Tuesday evening, when hundreds of masked men burned families out of their homes and set vehicles alight.

“We want to make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome, and peaceful protest is the only way forward,” the family of the victim, Stephen Ogilvie, said in a statement.

“We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country… We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility,” it said.