Footage from social media shows one officer falling, apparently injured, as riot police and youths clash in north Belfast over a bonfire due to be lit on Thursday night to commemorate the anniversary of the mass internment of republican suspects in 1971, an event that galvanised IRA recruitment at the height of the Troubles.

The officers withdrew their vehicles from the area on Thursday afternoon after coming under a hail of bottles, bricks, fireworks and other projectiles. Earlier the police had accompanied contractors from a private removals company in an unsuccessful attempt to dismantle the bonfire.