Published on •Updated
Anti-immigration protests broke out in Belfast on Tuesday following a stabbing in the city.
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Vehicles and buildings were set alight as hundreds of people took to the streets in response to the attack, graphic footage of which has been circulating online.
The video shows a man straddling another man in the middle of a street as he slashes at his head and neck with a knife before a group intervenes.
Northern Ireland police charged a 30-year-old Sudanese man with attempted murder over the incident, which occurred in the Kinnaird Avenue area of north Belfast on Monday evening. The man is due to appear in court on Wednesday.
The victim was taken to hospital with “serious injuries to his eyes and slash-wound injuries to his back and face,” police said.
In a statement, assistant chief constable Ryan Henderson of the Police Service of Northern Ireland urged calm.
“Sporadic pockets of disorder have broken out in a number of locations across Northern Ireland this evening, including incidents in which a number of vehicles have been set on fire,” he said on Tuesday.
“We are urging everyone to remain calm, act responsibly, and avoid any activity that could place themselves or others at risk,” he continued, adding that officers were on the ground.
Michelle O’Neill, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, called the protests “outright thuggery”.
“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she wrote in a post on X. “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.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attack as “sickening” but said he had “absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets”.
