Disturbances have been reported in North Belfast tonight after the blockade of a Catholic girls primary school earlier today.
Unionist and nationalist representatives are under pressure to help end the violence which erupted over the attempted blocking of the children's way to school.
Earlier, Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy urged both sides to negotiate a settlement after police clashed with Protestants attempting to block the route for youngsters attending Holy Cross Primary School in a loyalist part of the Ardoyne district.
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She declared: "These are disgraceful scenes that can have no justification.
"The issues have to be resolved between the communities and for that to happen the violence we saw today must end."
A crowd of up to 200 protesters were held back by troops and RUC officers who used screens and riot shields to form a pathway for the terrified youngsters and their parents.
It was the first day of the new school term and trouble erupted after attempts failed over the summer holidays to try to negotiate a settlement between the two sides following violence in the area in June.
At one stage, police drew batons to shift the protesters.
Missiles were also hurled and one woman needed hospital treatment for head wounds.
Protestants from the Glenbryn enclave shouted sectarian abuse and spat at the children and parents from the republican Ardoyne district as they were escorted to Holy Cross.
"You Fenian scum," some shouted while others spat at the parents and the cowering children. Bottles were also hurled from across the road as they went through the school gates.
Standing amid the broken glass which littered the school gates, Holy Cross Principal Ms Anne Tanney described the protesters as "sick".
"A lot of the children were too traumatised to stay here and that's the worst thing that could have happened to them," she said.
"No child should have to endure that."
Amid fears of further violence, the board of governors at Holy Cross was tonight meeting parents to urge them to use an alternative school route.
The chairman, Father Aidan Troy, said: "If tomorrow morning a little girl was hit with a bottle, as I was nearly hit this morning, and somebody said to me `Did you not say anything?', I don't think I could hold my head up."
The loyalist paramilitary Red Hand Defenders warned parents to stay away from the area. Police were also threatened by the terror grouping.
RUC Assistant Chief Constable for Belfast, Alan McQuillan, said it was a disgrace that they had to try to build a safe corridor to get children through.
But he warned the protesters that his officers would be there every day if necessary to ensure the pupils got to class.
"All we can do is hold the line. We are literally holding the line in the middle of the Ardoyne Road this morning."
Violence first flared in June after loyalists claimed republicans attacked a youth as he erected flags near the school.
Catholics insisted parents and children were attacked outside the gates to Holy Cross.
Stormont Education Minister Martin McGuinness insisted children should be able to travel to school unhindered.
The Sinn Féin Mid Ulster MP said: "No child should be fearful of going to school and I would encourage everyone with influence to work towards an immediate resolution of this problem." SDLP Assembly member for the area Alban Maginness labelled the protests "an affront to common decency".
He said: "Our children are the future of our society. To see them being used in this way, being subjected to such base sectarianism, is deeply disturbing."
But North Belfast Democratic Unionist MP Nigel Dodds accused the RUC of escalating the situation.
He said all attacks must be condemned, but claimed the RUC "made a bad situation worse".
Billy Hutchinson, a Northern Ireland Assembly member for North Belfast, accused police of allowing republicans who were not taking children to school to walk through the Protestant area.
"When the RUC provide a guard of honour for well-known Provos, then it's a bad day," he said.
Belfast Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers also condemned the police handling of the situation.
He said: "I have been abused this morning by some police officers and I think my position as first citizen of Belfast has been badly let down."
PA