Belfast violence leads to seven arrests

A total of seven people have been arrested over the wave of street violence that erupted in Northern Ireland this week. Two men aged 25 and 35 were taken to Antrim police station for questioning last night in connection with a gun attack on police lines in North Queen Street during a riot in north Belfast on Monday. A 20-year-old man is due in court on a charge of disorderly behaviour in south Belfast on the same day. Yesterday, during a fourth night of trouble in north Belfast, police fired baton rounds and used water cannon. A car was set on fire by protesters and petrol bombs and fireworks were thrown during sporadic violence in Ardoyne. Two men in their late teens and early 20s were arrested. One was released pending further inquiries. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said a number of officers had been injured but none was thought to be in a serious condition. The chairman of the Northern Ireland assembly's policing committee, Lord Morrow, criticised the relatively few of arrests in connection with the riots and shootings. There was further trouble in Belfast today when armed and masked men hijacked a car in the west of the city and abandoned it on the Twinbrook estate. Army bomb disposal officers were sent to deal with a suspect device in the car.