Protests and riots broke out in Belfast, United Kingdom, the day after a Sudanese immigrant stabbed and attempted to behead a local.
A bystander filmed the crime on Monday night, in which a Sudanese immigrant straddled and tried to behead a man in his 40s with a kitchen knife. The victim narrowly survived after the intervention of locals, but the attack sparked outrage against the government’s immigration policies after a week of tension over the police handling of the murder of university student Henry Nowak. Protests were announced in Northern Ireland’s capital early in the day, with police urging participants to be calm, but Tuesday night saw mobs block streets, set fire to vehicles, and clash with police.
Black smoke rose above the historic city, mostly from trash bins set ablaze and vandalized vehicles. Early in the riots, masked groups used flaming trash bins to set fire to a public bus, consuming the vehicle in an inferno.
Most of the violence was carried out by organized, masked groups dressed in black. They also turned their anger against local homes, smashing windows, banging on doors, and setting houses on fire. Some users reported that the houses targeted were migrant shelters.
A Middle Eastern supermarket was stormed and set ablaze.
Videos taken from locals showed some masked people stopping and searching cars.
Police, familiar with unrest in the city, were on standby with cordons of armored cars, which were quickly pelted with projectiles by the rioters.
Northern Ireland’s justice minister, Naomi Long, denounced the protests and riots.
“There is no place for masked thugs to take to the streets and threaten, intimidate, disrupt and cause wanton damage,” she said, lamenting that rioters had ignored her calls for calm.
She accused the protesters of “weaponizing the genuine hurt, concern and anger that people are feeling for their own misguided purposes.”
SUDANESE MAN ARRESTED AFTER ATTEMPTING TO BEHEAD MAN IN BELFAST
The protests and riots are already much more severe than those surrounding the death of Henry Nowak, who died in police custody after being stabbed by a Sikh man.
Protests broke out in other cities across the U.K. over Monday’s attack as well.