Bus hijacked and set alight by loyalists close to the scene where 47 police officers were injured during riots on Sunday

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

There has been further disorder in north Belfast with police again being attacked with petrol bombs.

A bus has also been hijacked and set alight by Ulster loyalists close to the scene where 47 police officers were injured during nearly ten hours of rioting on Sunday night.

Eyewitnesses say the Police Service of Northern Ireland have again been forced to deploy water cannon to quell the trouble close to the entrance of the Lower Shankill estate.

The violence followed a loyalist protest at tea time against the policing of their demonstration on Sunday. The loyalists were protesting against a republican band parade passing by a local Orange Hall.

Locals estimate that around 300 loyalists are taking part in rioting with a smaller number of republicans penned back by police lines nearby.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has vowed to prosecute those behind the riots.

PSNI Chief Superintendent George Clark defended the force's handling of the disorder in the Carlisle Circus-Antrim Road area overnight on Sunday.

He said officers holding the line between rioting loyalists and republicans had shown "tremendous courage" in the face of the violence. At one stage up to 40 petrol bombs were thrown at police, he said, the majority from loyalist lines.

Clark said those responsible would be "held to account for their actions".

The PSNI said the initial violence was caused by loyalists demonstrating against a republican band parade passing by the Clifton Street Orange Hall on Sunday afternoon. Up to 350 loyalists rained petrol bombs, golf balls, bricks and stones on police lines close to the Lower Shankill estate. Riot squad officers fought running battles with republicans along the nearby Antrim Road.

The police used water cannons to try to quell the violence, which subsided at about 2am.

Clark said the violence against his officers was savage, but confirmed that the PSNI did not fire any baton rounds at the rioters.

Sinn Féin said on Sunday night that loyalists almost killed a family, including five children, after a Catholic home near the peace line in west Belfast was bombarded with petrol bombs.

Sinn Féin councillor Fra McCann said the attack could "only be described as attempted murder by those responsible".

The atmosphere in north Belfast has been tense since the previous weekend when loyalists defied a ban on their bands playing sectarian songs as they filed past St Patrick's church in Donegall Street.

There are fears of further trouble in the area at the end of this month when thousands of loyalists are scheduled to pass St Patrick's on 29 September. The parade is part of a day-long commemoration of the 1912 Ulster Covenant – the mass unionist opposition to home rule 100 years ago.