The RUC said 130 petrol-bombs were thrown during rioting in Derry on Saturday afternoon. At least eight officers and six civilians were injured. A number of arrests were made.
The violence began on Saturday morning just before the main Relief of Derry march by more than 10,000 Apprentice Boys through the centre of the city. The Parades Commission had placed no route restrictions on the march and it passed without incident.
Nationalists were hemmed into their area from mid-morning as Apprentice Boys gathered at the Waterside. The British army placed barricades over the gates leading through the city walls to the Bogside.
There was a heavy security presence with large numbers of LandRovers and personnel carriers parked in side streets. Clashes between nationalists and police first occurred at Waterloo Place, away from the contentious Diamond area, at about 11.30 a.m. Protesters hurled rocks, bottles, golf balls and paint as riot police charged and retreated, eventually succeeding in pushing the youths up Waterloo Street.
Hijacked trucks were placed at barricades at the junction of William Street but British soldiers removed the vehicles with bulldozers before they could be set alight.
At lunchtime on Saturday the Bogside residents' groups were prevented from marching to the Diamond area. They protested in the city-centre to show solidarity with residents on the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast, who had earlier staged a sit-down protest before being removed by the RUC.
The Assistant RUC Chief Constable, Mr Alan McQuillan, who was in charge of the police operation in Derry, said the members of the Bogside residents' group had acted responsibly and blamed hangers-on for the trouble.
He said the violence was a disgrace and blamed its orchestration on republican paramilitary groups in the city. "People came prepared, they had catapults, they had petrol-bombs, they had fireworks. This was organised."
The spokesman for the Bogside residents, Mr Donnacha MacNiallais, said "the ultimate responsibility for any trouble rested solely and squarely on the shoulders of the RUC and behind that the decision by the Parades Commission to force parades through here and through the Ormeau Road".
The governor of the Apprentice Boys, Mr Alistair Simpson, said the loyal order could not be blamed for any of the trouble.
The chairman of the Parades Commission, Mr Alistair Graham, who viewed the main Derry parade, said it had been well marshalled. However, he noted that about five bands had broken the conduct conditions as they paraded around the Diamond.