Reports of casualties awaited after high-velocity rounds fired at officers attending loyalist march in Twaddell Avenue area
Police officers repeatedly came under gunfire in north Belfast on Thursday while escorting a loyalist protest near a sectarian interface.
Up to 15 high-velocity rounds were heard being fired at police lines from the republican Ardoyne district. A car was later found burnt out in the area, according to local reports. There are no precise reports as of yet of casualties at the scene.
Officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland were deployed in the Twaddell Avenue area, which leads from the loyalist Upper Shankill Road to Ardoyne.
They were policing a peaceful protest by local loyalists against a ban on the Orange Order marching past the Ardoyne shops, which has been in place since July this year. Ardoyne is now a stronghold of the anti-ceasefire republican terror group Oghlaigh na hEireann.
The Ardoyne-Twaddell Avenue interface is one of the most unstable sectarian flashpoints in Northern Ireland, and has been the scene of rioting involving police, hardline republicans and loyalists for years but especially during the marching season. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
Police officers repeatedly came under gunfire in north Belfast on Thursday while escorting a loyalist protest near a sectarian interface.
Up to 15 high-velocity rounds were heard being fired at police lines from the republican Ardoyne district. A car was later found burnt out in the area, according to local reports. There are no precise reports as of yet of casualties at the scene.
Officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland were deployed in the Twaddell Avenue area, which leads from the loyalist Upper Shankill Road to Ardoyne.
They were policing a peaceful protest by local loyalists against a ban on the Orange Order marching past the Ardoyne shops, which has been in place since July this year. Ardoyne is now a stronghold of the anti-ceasefire republican terror group Oghlaigh na hEireann.
The Ardoyne-Twaddell Avenue interface is one of the most unstable sectarian flashpoints in Northern Ireland, and has been the scene of rioting involving police, hardline republicans and loyalists for years but especially during the marching season. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.