A barber’s shop on Sandy Row in Belfast is usually packed out by noon.
On Tuesday, there is only one customer as its owner, Ahmed Hussen, keeps watch following the previous night’s violence that left a victim of a racist attack seriously ill in hospital.
Hussen’s shop was among those targeted by rioters after an anti-immigration protest in Belfast on Saturday afternoon; social media footage shows one vandal throwing a blue flare at the shop’s shutters while others stand on and cheer. Another waves an Ulster flag.
The Sudanese-born businessman has not slept since then.
“In daylight hours, this is happening in Northern Ireland. It’s quite shocking,” he tells The Irish Times.
“It makes me feel sad. I have been living here since 2008, we are second citizens in this country. Our kids were born here, this is their home. Where else can they go?
“Why are these people doing this? Out of hatred, jealousy? A few people have come to support us – but not from the local area. We feel like we’re not welcome here.”
Around the corner on the Donegall Road, rubble from a supermarket destroyed in an arson attack on Saturday is strewn across the footpath.
The air reeks of smoke as the premises were set alight for a second time on Monday evening when 300 police officers were deployed during disorder involving around 100 rioters, including many teenagers.
Witnesses described how they saw a man in his 50s having his head “stamped on” by a mob before members of the public came to his rescue.
On Tuesday morning¸ a Muslim woman wheels her child’s buggy along Sandy Row with her head down.
Asylum seekers are among those who regularly use this row of shops.
Across the road is the Sandy Row Rangers supporters club, where three men stand outside smoking.
Two police cars arrive shortly after noon and park up by the burnt-out supermarket.
It is eerily quiet.
At the counter of the Tayiba Bazaar, shop worker Adam Ahamed says people in his community are too afraid to leave their homes.
He is fearful about further attacks.
“We don’t know what is going to happen, we’re not sure if we’re going to close or not,” he says.
“Yesterday the police came and they told us that nothing was going to happen. But at 4pm, we found out that the violence was going to start again and they were planning to burn the shops. So we closed.
“I’ve been working here for two years and I haven’t seen any trouble. We’re usually busy but since this all this started we’ve had maybe five or six customers altogether.
“All our customers are refugees and asylum seekers – now they are too scared to come out.”
At a police press conference at lunchtime on Tuesday, a senior officer described the racist violence as “horrendous”.
“This is not who we are as a society,” PSNI temporary Assistant Chief Constable Melanie Jones told reporters.
One migrant business owner told the BBC he will leave the area after being attacked multiple times.
For Hussen, his priority is his four young children.
“My kids have stayed at home for the past four days, the eldest is nine,” he says.
“Anything can happen to them, even in the park. We saw on social media a couple of videos about stuff that has happened in the UK.
“I live in a loyalist area close to here which is quite a scary place.
“Everybody is afraid to come out of the house. When they go out, they go out with five and six people together. People just don’t feel safe.”
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