

A female police officer was seriously injured last night during sectarian rioting in Northern Ireland after a loyalist parade was forced past a Catholic area of north Belfast.

The police officer was struck on the head with a breeze block during an attack by rioters from the nationalist Ardoyne. She was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in the midst of the riot on the Crumlin road. As she was being tended to, rioters continued to throw missiles at her and colleagues had to hold up shields to protect her and paramedics. She was later transferred to hospital by ambulance.

The violence across Belfast and in two towns in Co Armagh was blamed on republican dissidents who have been accused of exploiting tensions over Ulster's loyalist marching season. A significant number of prominent republican dissidents were seen on the Crumlin road last night.

Police were pelted with petrol bombs, iron bars, bricks and bottles at the border between nationalist and loyalist areas in Belfast's Ardoyne district after 100 police officers in riot gear pushed the Orange Order march up the Crumlin Road.

Police fired baton rounds and deployed water cannon against nationalist demonstrators who were forced off the road shortly before 9pm. The protesters had sat down on the Crumlin Road aiming to block local Orangemen returning from Belfast city centre. Earlier police snatch squads had failed to take the demonstrators off the road.

There were reports that an Orangeman in his 60s was hit in the head with a brick as nationalist youths also threw missiles at the parade. As the Orange march passed by, riot police held up shields to protect the marchers from the bombardment.

Sinn Féin and the police have blamed republican dissidents for orchestrating the trouble in north and west Belfast during which three police officers were shot and 27 others injured.

Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Féin minister at Stormont and former IRA bomber, said there was evidence that outsiders were behind the violence.

"There was other people who came and took over the protests – I think with the intention there would be riots later on and you can see what happened since," he said.

Five petrol bombs and several paint bombs were hurled at police on the Ormeau bridge in south Belfast according to the police.

In west Belfast, two armed and masked men hijacked a bus and forced its driver to drive to the local police station in Woodburn.

The men said they had left an explosive device on the bus, which the driver was forced to abandon at the station. The area around the station was sealed off while the army dealt with the device. Army bomb disposal officers later declared the device to be a hoax.

While Sinn Féin appealed for peaceful protest yesterday, a number of republican dissidents closed the Crumlin Road.

On Sunday night three police officers were hurt when a masked man opened fire on police lines with a shotgun in North Queen street, which runs from the nationalist New Lodge area to loyalist Tigers Bay. Police had been trying to prevent clashes between nationalist and loyalist youths. One officer still remained in hospital last night with gunshot wounds to his arm.

There was also violence on Sunday night in Broadway, which links the republican Falls road to the M1, after police patrols blocked one end to prevent republicans attacking homes in the loyalist Village area.

Up to 200 rioters attacked the police, who deployed water cannons. Seven civilians, including two children, were also injured in the Village after a car hit a crowd by a bonfire.

There was further violence last night in Lurgan, Co Armagh where up to 50 youths attacked police on the nationalist Kilwilkie estate. Seven petrol bombs were thrown at officers.

Earlier nationalist youths in Lurgan tried to set fire to a train on the Belfast to Dublin line, but the driver managed to move clear and get his 55 passengers off safely. Late last night, petrol bombs were still being thrown at police patrols in the Antrim Road area of Lurgan.

There were also disturbances in nearby Armagh city last night where nationalist youths attacked police patrols. Nationalists set fire to bins and blocked the lower Catholic end of the road during the trouble sparked by the return of a local Ormeau Orange Order lodge. There was also trouble in east Belfast at a sectarian flashpoint between the nationalist Short Strand and the loyalist Woodstock areas.

Return to violence

The 12th of July is the key date in the Ulster loyalist marching season. It marks the anniversary of King William of Orange's victory over Catholic King James II in the Battle of the Boyne. There are always demonstrations by nationalists against loyalist parades that pass Catholic areas such as Ardoyne in north Belfast. However, the hike in violence this year is due in large part to republican dissidents opposed to the peace process. The Real IRA and Continuity IRA want to exploit anger over decisions to allow loyalists to march past certain Catholic areas to win new recruits.