Public disorder broke out in Ballymena for the third successive night on Wednesday, while a leisure centre in the town of Larne was set alight after masked youths purportedly smashed the building’s windows.
East Antrim MLA Gordon Lyons earlier said a number of people affected by disturbances in Ballymena the previous two nights had been accommodated at the leisure centre in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
They had been moved elsewhere before the centre was targeted.
“Wanton destruction such as the attack on Larne Leisure Centre is an attack on all residents who use the facility,” Mr Gordon said in a social media post.
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Riot police and armoured vans blocked roads in Ballymena on Wednesday evening as a crowd of about 200 people watched on. Two rocks were thrown at a police van and one person kicked the bonnet of a police van, a witness said.
The police vans slowly moved towards the crowd who were warned over a loud speaker to disperse immediately as force was “about to be used against violent individuals.”
Police in Northern Ireland made a request for support from colleagues in the rest of the UK following further violence in Ballymena, a senior officer has said earlier.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said the force would be bringing extra officers, vehicles and equipment to areas where unrest has flared.
He said there were disgraceful scenes in Belfast, Lisburn, Coleraine, Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey on Tuesday, as businesses, homes and cars were attacked and damaged.
By Wednesday six individuals had been arrested for public order offences, with one charged.
Prime minister Keir Starmer said he “utterly” condemns violence that has left 32 police officers injured following a second night of disturbances. Speaking during prime minister’s questions in the UK House of Commons, Mr Starmer condemned the “mindless attacks” against police.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher warned the rioting “risks undermining” the criminal justice process into an allegation of a sex attack on a teenage girl in Ballymena at the weekend.
Stormont ministers also made an urgent appeal for calm and said the justice process had to be allowed to take its course.
Providing an update on the policing operation on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Henderson said: “We are taking steps to increase available resources and are surging a significant number of extra officers, vehicles and equipment to those areas where the rioting is taking place.”
“As part of my forward planning I have now activated the request for mutual aid resources from policing colleagues in Great Britain to ensure we have the necessary support and maintain public order and bring offenders to justice in the days to come.”
He said they have requested about 80 officers through mutual aid.
In a joint statement, ministers from across the Stormont powersharing Executive, which includes Sinn Féin, DUP, Alliance Party and UUP, said those involved in disorder have nothing to offer society but “division and disorder”.
First Minister and Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill told reporters in Belfast: “It’s pure racism, there is no other way to dress it up.”
“That is absolutely unacceptable and everything that needs to be done to bring it to an end is our focus in terms of the engagement we have with the PSNI.”
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly described the scenes in Ballymena as “unacceptable thuggery”.
“I think today is about sending a very clear message that violence is wrong, it is entirely unacceptable. It must stop.”
With the protests focused in predominantly loyalist areas in Ballymena, Ms O’Neill said she did not believe a visit by her would prove helpful in the current context.
DUP MLA Ms Little-Pengelly visited the town on Wednesday and met local residents.
She said members of the local community are in fear and want the violence to stop. —Additional reporting PA/Reuters
