Northern Ireland secretary condemns Belfast riots as ‘racist thuggery’ after 12 police officers injured – UK politics live

Good morning. Hilary Benn , secretary for Northern Ireland , has accused people online of trying to incite disorder in Belfast after two days of unrest in the city after a knife attack. This comes after a second night of violent unrest in the area, where police used a water cannon to disperse a crowd of about 300 people who burned a truck and threw bricks and petrol bombs close to the Sandyknowes roundabout near Newtownabbey, eight miles north of Belfast. Twelve police officers were injured and 16 arrests were made in the second night of unrest, Benn said. There was video footage of dozens of men dressed all in black and wearing face coverings gathering on Antrim Road, where they could be seen tearing bricks from properties and smashing paving stones with sledgehammers to create projectiles to throw at police. Rioters attempted to set fire to a derelict property near a petrol station in Newtownabbey, with some throwing petrol bombs at police lines. They could also be seen taking wheelie bins from outside homes and lighting fires in them. Some of these protesters reportedly planned to target a nearby hotel that was believed to host migrants. These anti-immigration protests, some of which turned violent, started on Tuesday in response to a knife attack. Sudanese 30-year-old Hadi Alodid , of Duncairn Avenue, Belfast , was charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie on Monday. He was further charged with possessing a knife in a public place, Kinnaird Avenue, on the same day. The Guardian’s report from Wednesday night described scenes of demonstrators tearing up a garden fence to use as a barricade and shield – and using tyres, furniture and wheelie bins to start a large fire. A white van was driven into the flames reportedly by a man who left it in gear, and jumped out. Police tried to extinguish the flames. Police use water cannon against rioters in Northern Ireland Read more Now, Benn is accusing people online of trying to incite disorder in Belfast. This comes as figures including Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk have been posting about the riots online – including a list of protest locations posted by Robinson, accompanied by the caption describing the attack as “yet another invader attack on our people”. Later, he claimed that they are “not my protests” and said he was “merely passing on information”. When asked by BBC Breakfast this morning about the alleged incidents of people’s addresses being shared on social media so that their homes could become targets of potential hate, Benn said: “It is completely unacceptable to direct someone to a particular address because you say, or you think you know, that a particular person lives there. “The vast majority of people would be very shocked to know that was going on and the social media companies have a responsibility to take down illegal content, particularly when we’ve been seeing circumstances like we have in Northern Ireland recently.” Northern Ireland secretary, Hilary Benn, attends a pres