Tense standoff as Northern Ireland town hit by third night of riots

Fireworks thrown at Riot Police illuminate the road during a thrid night of anti-immigration demonstrations in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, on June 11, 2025. PAUL FAITH / AFP

Hundreds gathered on the streets of Ballymena in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, June 11, facing police armed with riot shields and water cannon on the third night of anti-immigrant demonstrations.

The crowds eventually dispersed without a repeat of the chaotic scenes from the previous two nights, when houses and businesses were torched and 32 police officers were injured.

The protests erupted in the northern town after the arrest of two teenagers accused of attempting to rape a young girl. The pair appeared Monday in court, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter. Police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the teenagers, who remain in custody, but areas attacked on Monday and Tuesday included neighborhoods where Romanian migrants live.

Ministers from every party in the province’s power-sharing executive strongly condemned “the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days.” Residents had been “terrorized” and police injured, they said in Wednesday’s joint statement, urging people to reject the “divisive” agenda being pushed by a “destructive” minority.

In response to what they termed “racist thuggery”, police deployed riot officers with dogs and have asked forces in England and Wales for help quelling the unrest. On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the unrest in Ballymena “mindless violence.”

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Around 32 kilometers southeast of the town, masked men set a leisure center in Larne on fire, local media reported. The center was temporarily sheltering people from Ballymena who had been evacuated.

People living in Ballymena described “terrifying” scenes in which attackers had targeted “foreigners” over the previous days. Some people fixed signs to their houses indicating they were Filipino residents, or hung up British flags.

‘Racially motivated’

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin vice-president, called the violence “abhorrent.”

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The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said in a statement that its officers “came under sustained attack over a number of hours with multiple petrol bombs, heavy masonry, bricks and fireworks in their direction.” Some of the injured officers required hospital treatment.

Police Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson on Tuesday denounced the violence as “racist thuggery” and said it was “clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police.”

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Six people were arrested on Tuesday during the second night of riots in Ballymena and the surrounding area. The unrest comes as the topic of immigration fuels divisions across the United Kingdom and in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.

“There is nothing remotely British about wrapping oneself in the Union flag, attacking migrants, forcing people from their homes and scapegoating entire communities anywhere in the United Kingdom,” said Former Northern Ireland minister Lord Caine.

Le Monde with AFP

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