Highlights
- Buildings and vehicles were set alight during protests in Belfast.
- A Sudanese refugee was charged with attempted murder after a stabbing attack.
- Northern Ireland's first minister condemned the violence and appealed for calm.
- Police urged people not to share footage of the attack circulating online.
ANTI-IMMIGRATION protesters set fire to buildings and vehicles and blocked roads in Belfast on Tuesday evening, a day after a stabbing allegedly carried out by a Sudanese refugee. The attack was captured in a video that has been widely shared online.
Hundreds of protesters, many of them masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast, AFP journalists reported. A bus and several cars were set alight, while a building near the city centre caught fire and residents were evacuated.
"By 7:30 pm (18:30 GMT) they started (a) fire in the bins...we heard police cars and sirens," said one resident, Eemran, an engineer of Indian origin who has been living in Belfast for slightly over a year.
"More and more people started coming, they started throwing petrol bombs. Suddenly the fire started going...we had smoke inside the building...fire people came in and they said 'go down'," he said in broken English.
Camila, a 36-year-old Chilean who moved to Belfast a month ago, said it was "scary".
"Of course I'm not used to it," she said. "I understand the people's rage but also there are ways of discussing these things more peacefully".
Sky television showed other buildings on fire.
Police helicopters patrolled above the city and shops closed early.
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill condemned the protests and urged calm.
"Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice," she said on X.
"Racism, intimidation and violence are wrong wherever they occur. There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight. No one wants to see this on our streets and I again appeal for calm".
Crowds also gathered in Antrim, around 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Belfast.
Earlier, US tech billionaire Elon Musk reposted a message from anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, and wrote: "Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!".
The suspect in the knife attack, whose name has not been released, was charged late on Tuesday with attempted murder, possession of a bladed weapon in a public place and making threats to kill. The 30-year-old is due to appear in court on Wednesday.
As anti-immigration figures, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, called for details about the attacker, the interior ministry confirmed he was a Sudanese refugee with a residence permit valid until 2028.
Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher said the man had arrived in the UK in 2023 via Paris and Dublin.
Tensions were already high in Britain after violent clashes last week in Southampton in southern England over the police handling of the murder of a young white student who was stabbed to death by a British Sikh man.
On Tuesday, dozens of demonstrators also gathered there outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, carrying banners reading "no racism, just patriotism" and "enough is enough".
The video from Belfast shows a man straddling another man lying in a street and slashing him several times in the head and neck with a knife, in what far-right figures claimed was an attempted beheading.
Several people can then be seen intervening, one carrying a hurling stick, and tackling the attacker as police arrive.
The victim, a man in his 40s, was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
"He was taken to hospital with significant injuries to his eyes and serious slash wound injuries to his back and face," police told reporters.
Officers recovered what is believed to be a kitchen knife at the scene, Henderson confirmed.
A 31-year-old mother of one who lives nearby said the incident had left the neighbourhood frightened.
"We're just living in fear now," she told AFP.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the incident as "horrific" and "sickening" on X.
The leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties issued a joint statement condemning the attack, saying "there is no place in our society for this kind of brutality".
Political leaders and police urged people not to share the video, saying its "graphic nature would only serve to retraumatise those involved".
However, numerous social media accounts linked to so-called "patriots" continued to share the footage and called on people to "protest against mass immigration into their communities".
The UK interior ministry confirmed that the Sudanese suspect entered the country in 2023 and was granted refugee status the same year, allowing him to remain until 2028.
"There is no trace of this suspect on any of our national security databases, and he was not known to the Police Service of Northern Ireland," Boutcher said.
Immigration has become a major political issue in Britain and has contributed to the rise of Reform UK in opinion polls.
(With inputs from agencies)
