There were violent scenes in Belfast overnight as riots broke out in the wake of a knife attack in the city.
On Tuesday, a Sudanese man was arrested over an alleged stabbing in the north of the city. The 30-year-old has been charged with attempted murder following the attack on Monday night.
Shocking footage shared on social media appears to show a man stabbing at the victim’s head and neck while he was lying on the ground.
The incident is not being treated as terror-related at this point in time, and the alleged attacker is understood to have been granted leave to remain in the UK on 28 September 2023.
After the footage was shared online, and the suspect’s nationality confirmed, it wasn’t long before violent riots predictably broke out on the streets of Belfast, just like in Southampton last week.
The violence saw a bus set on fire and some properties were set ablaze.
The BBC reports that hundreds of masked men were walking down streets shouting “foreigners out,” whilst kicking doors down and breaking windows.
The abhorrent violence has been widely condemned by voices from across the political spectrum. This included Claire Hanna, Belfast MP and leader of the Social Democratic & Labour Party, who described the riots as a “race-based pogrom.”
She said the violence had been encouraged by “negative actors online and politicians locally who don’t really care what communities in north Belfast have been through.”
She continued: “What you’re seeing is a race-based pogrom. We are seeing men going door to door asking to get the foreigners out based exclusively on the colour of their skin.
“It’s not based on what they’re contributing to society, what their status here is and it’s terrifying for people in Belfast who want this sort of politics to be far beyond them.”
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long told BBC Radio Ulster the violence was “obscene” and had left young children and families “homeless.”
Debates around the suspected attackers immigration status were a “moot point” she told BBC Breakfast, explaining: “There’s nothing to suggest, let’s be clear, that the individual involved in this attack was anything other than a regularised person, so he had five years’ leave to remain.”