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Police deployed a water cannon against protesters in Northern Ireland on Wednesday as violence continued following a knife attack in Belfast earlier this week.
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Anti-immigration demonstrators, many dressed in black and wearing masks, gathered for a second night, hurling bricks and bottles at officers and setting vehicles and bins alight despite pleas for calm from authorities.
Disorder broke out across Northern Ireland and Scotland on Tuesday night after graphic video footage emerged of the attack. It showed a man straddling another man in the middle of a street as he slashed at his face and neck with a knife before a group intervened.
A 30-year-old Sudanese man, reportedly named in court as Hadi Alodid, was arrested and charged with attempted murder in relation to the incident.
The victim, Stephen Ogilvie, sustained severe injuries to his eyes as well as slashes to his face and back and remains in hospital.
Ogilvie’s family said in a statement that while they were “completely devastated by the horrific attack” they had been “left feeling disgusted” by the subsequent violence in Northern Ireland.
“We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including from within our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work,” the statement said. “We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility – do not do this in the name of our loved one as we do not share the same values.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the disorder “completely unacceptable” and urged calm.
“There is no justification for the acts of violence and arson that we saw in Belfast last night,” he wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.
“We must let the police get on with their work,” he added.
Two police officers were injured while responding to Tuesday’s protests in Belfast, with two others injured in Glasgow.
