Reuters. Police in Northern Ireland's Belfast donned riot gear and advanced along a road in specialist vehicles as smoke billowed behind them on Wednesday evening (June 10).
Police also clashed with protesters for a second night on Wednesday, deploying water cannon and armoured vehicles against a few dozen young men hurling bricks and fireworks to the north of Belfast. But there was far less unrest than the same time on Tuesday evening (June 9).
A wave of anti-immigrant violence hit Belfast overnight on Tuesday, with masked men burning families out of their homes and torching vehicles, after a brutal stabbing of a man.
The suspect in the attack, a 30-year-old Sudanese national named as Hadi Alodid, appeared in court on Wednesday and was remanded in custody.
The knife attack, which is currently not being treated as terrorism, comes at a time of heightened tensions in Britain following the murder of a student who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer, a Sikh man, falsely alleged a racist attack.
It also follows repeated protests about immigration, with populist parties saying Britain's asylum policy had allowed dangerous men into the country.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk reposted many messages denouncing the state of the United Kingdom following the Belfast incident.
