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A young boy look out though a smashed front door window following loyalist attacks on nationalists' homes in the Duncain Gardens area of north Belfast. Photo: Reuters
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A number of Catholic-owned homes were attacked last night after violence broke out during the first major contentious parade of the loyalist marching season in Northern Ireland.
The "Tour of the North" passed a number of flashpoint sectarian interfaces between loyalist and nationalist communities in North Belfast.
Police were also investigating claims that shots were fired during the trouble. Nationalists said homes in North Queen Street came under gun attack from loyalists who emerged from the neighbouring Tigers Bay district hours after the parade passed by.
Bolt cutters were also used to cut down metal fencing erected in front of Catholic homes to shield them from attack, they claimed.
As the barriers were restored today following the overnight disturbances, Sinn Féin’s north Belfast Assemblyman Mr Gerry Kelly said hand to hand fighting erupted as nationalists came out to protect their homes.
Blaming loyalist paramilitaries, he claimed: "People here recognised the attackers as UDA men. "There were three shots fired and they tried to cut through the fencing so they could throw petrol bombs."
A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman confirmed officers were investigating reports of gunfire in the area. "Until we find strike marks or bullet cases we cannot say for certain whether there was shooting," he added.
Bricks and bottles were thrown by rival nationalist residents of the Duncairn Gardens area and loyalist marchers.
The trouble is believed to have started when nationalists in the New Lodge area clashed with marchers as the parade passed through a contested stretch of Duncairn Gardens.
Eight Catholic homes were then attacked, with a woman in her seventies taken to hospital. Mr Kelly said three of the residents of the houses were pensioners, adding: "The people in these houses were not throwing anything."
DUP councillor Mr Nelson McCausland accused republicans of attacking marchers with bricks, bottles and stones.
He said: "I think it was quite clear from the attack in Duncairn Gardens that republicans were trying to provoke a reaction." A massive security presence remains in the area to maintain an uneasy calm.
Earlier Mr Kelly said the increased police presence would not only raise tensions in an already tense area but "completely undermine the efforts of local community and political representatives who have been working hard to keep interface tensions down".
The Parades Commission had imposed restrictions on the march, which takes alternating routes in even and uneven years. The route taken in even-numbered years is the more controversial one as it passes through mainly nationalist areas like the Cliftonville Road and parts of the Antrim Road.
PA