Fear grips Belfast as masked men confront nurse during second night of disorder

A nurse was chased by four masked men on her way to Ulster Hospital, and residents in Glengormley said the violence had turned ordinary routines into a risk. The second night of disorder in and around Belfast left 12 police officers injured, 16 people arrested and families describing homes being set on fire, a van pushed toward a house and children forced out of their neighbourhoods.

In Glengormley, Paul Sharkey said he was “petrified” as he watched a masked man walk up his street and set fire to homes. He said, “A van was set alight and pushed towards my home,” and added that he had hardly slept. Police deployed a water cannon near Sandyknowes roundabout after officers came under sustained attack from bricks, bottles and pieces of wood, while bins were set alight and a nearby crowd tried to push closer to a hotel said to house asylum seekers.

Across the city, the fear reached healthcare workers. The nurse, walking into work in Dundonald, was confronted and chased by masked men, according to her union. Patricia McKeown of Unison said the woman had done nothing wrong apart from having a “different colour of skin” and still stayed on for her Wednesday shift. McKeown called the attack “racism, pure and simple,” and said overseas staff had been left under threat, while workers living near Belfast City Hospital received letters warning them to leave or face being burnt out.

The unrest was inflamed by the knife attack in north Belfast that left Stephen Ogilvie seriously injured and cost him his left eye. Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn called the violence “racist thuggery” and said people had been stopped in cars and asked their nationality on the way to work, while Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said those involved were only destroying their own communities. With 200 mutual aid officers due on the ground and police releasing images of people they wanted to question, authorities were facing a test of whether the disorder could be contained before it hardened into something wider and more dangerous.