Image caption The pair are due to appear before Belfast Magistrates' Court on Saturday.

Two men have appeared in court charged with a number of offences following reported stabbings in north Belfast.

The alleged incidents happened on Thursday in the New Lodge area, near to an anti-internment bonfire.

The men charged are 21-year-old Caolán Donnelly of Cliftonville Drive and his cousin Francis Donnelly, 28, of Clifton Courtyard.

They appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court on Saturday.

Both men were charged with two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and two counts of having an offensive weapon with intent.

A police officer told the court the 18-year-old victim had stepped in to help his uncle during an altercation and had been pushed to the ground and stabbed a number of times in the back.

He suffered a collapsed lung, needed two blood transfusions and five staples to the wound.

A solicitor for Francis Donnelly said his client could not be seen in footage of the attack which had gone viral on the internet.

The judge denied both men bail.

The charges follow the stabbing of two men in the area.

An 18-year-old man remains in hospital, while a 39-year-old man has been discharged after receiving hospital treatment.