BELFAST: Protesters on Tuesday torched a bus and other vehicles and blocked arterial roads in Belfast a day after a brutal stabbing by a Sudanese suspect that sparked anti-immigration protests.
Northern Irish police and British authorities issued repeated calls for calm earlier on Tuesday following the attack captured in a gruesome video that shocked the country.
From 7:00 pm (0600 GMT), hundreds of protesters, many masked, began gathering at various locations in Belfast. Smoke rose from different parts of the city, which was being overflown by police helicopters, according to AFP journalists.
The suspect, whose name has not been released, was charged late Tuesday with attempted murder, possession of a bladed weapon in a public place and making threats to kill. The 30-year-old man is due to appear in court on Wednesday.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) vowed to increase its presence on the British province´s streets after footage shared online of Monday night´s incident drew shock, condemnation and demands for immediate demonstrations.
Hundreds of protesters, many with masked faces, gathered on the outskirts of Belfast on Tuesday evening, while police helicopters patrolled above the city and shops closed early.
A bus also caught fire, AFP reporters saw.
Tensions have already been heightened in Britain following violent skirmishes last week in Southampton, southern England, over the police handling of the murder of a young white student stabbed to death by a British Sikh man.
On Tuesday, dozens of demonstrators also gathered there outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, carrying reading “no racism, just patriotism”, “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 wielding a hurling stick, and tackling the perpetrator as police arrive.
Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said the force had “no information to suggest that this was a terrorist-related incident”.
The victim, a man in his 40s, “was taken to hospital with significant injuries to his eyes and serious slash wound injuries to his back and face,” he told reporters.
Officers recovered what is believed to be a kitchen knife at the scene, Henderson confirmed.
