Belfast stabbing latest: Homes and cars set ablaze as protesters accused of ‘thuggery’ after knife attack – UK Times

Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long has said far-right online agitators are to blame for stoking racial tension following the stabbing.

“We saw the rush to social media yesterday from commentators on the far-right who were clearly trying to stoke racial tension, building on a narrative that they have around immigration,” she told BBC Breakfast.

She added that comments made by pastor Jack McKee that people were being targeted just because they were black, were accurate.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Belfast on Tuesday, with some setting vehicles alight, after police charged a Sudanese man over a knife attack that left one person with serious neck and head wounds.

Masked youths gathered at points across the city, with police responding by deploying armoured vehicles. Homes on several streets caught fire, while protesters set fire to a number of vehicles, including a bus in east Belfast.

Separately, protests were reported in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Southampton. A few dozen protesters blocked Parliament Square in London.

A man is set to appear in court charged with attempted murder over a stabbing attack following a night of violence in Belfast.

Some people were forced to flee their homes and multiple cars and homes were set alight in the disorder on Tuesday which followed Monday’s knife attack in the north of the city.

The 30-year-old accused, 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.

One person who alerted police to the attack has told the BBC she first heard screaming outside.

She said a delivery driver then handed her his phone to speak to a 999 operator.

She said she was “standing in the street shaking” during the call, adding “never seen anything like it”.

The victim of the attack, aged in his 40s, continues to receive treatment in hospital for serious eye, face and back wounds.

First minister Michelle O’Neill took to social media late on Tuesday to condemn the violent protests sweeping Northern Ireland as nothing but “disgusting cowardice”.

“This has nothing to do with community. This is outright thuggery,” she said, appealing for calm.

“The attack in North Belfast was heinous and wrong. But there are dangerous attempts to exploit that to target and attack innocent people who are simply trying to live, work and raise their families here.”

Sir Keir Starmer and police have called for calm after a stabbing attack condemned as “sickening” by the prime minister sent shockwaves through Belfast.

Officers have declared a critical incident in response to the attack, which took place on Monday night on Kinnaird Avenue, a residential part of the city.

Horrifying video circulating online, which is too graphic to publish in full, appears to show a man with a knife pinning another man down on the ground and repeatedly stabbing him.