Masked men burned families out of their homes in Belfast and torched a number of vehicles in a wave of anti-immigrant violence on Tuesday night that followed a knife attack by a Sudanese man.
Hundreds of protesters, many with their faces covered, attacked police and burned vehicles in a number of locations across Northern Ireland after a video of the knife attack, which left one person with serious neck and head wounds, went viral.
A number of homes could be seen burning in the city on Tuesday evening. Video broadcast by the BBC showed police helping a family escape from a burning house. Local politicians and a pastor said many of those who were targeted were Black.
“There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight,” Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said. “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had described the initial knife attack, which took place in north Belfast late on Monday evening, as “sickening”.
The assault, which is currently not being treated as terrorism, comes at a time of heightened tensions in Britain following the murder of a student who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer, a Sikh man, falsely alleged a racist attack.
It also follows repeated protests about immigration, with populist parties saying Britain’s asylum policy had allowed dangerous men into the country.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk reposted many messages denouncing the state of the United Kingdom. In response to a post from the anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson about the north Belfast incident in which he called for protests after “yet another invader attack on our people”, Musk said: “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!”
Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister Naomi Long told Reuters that “bad faith actors” who would have previously struggled to find the province on a map had sought to weaponise the understandable fear and anger sparked by the knife attack to target those who had the same skin colour.
“Do not allow your genuine concerns to be manipulated by bad faith actors,” she said. “We know in Northern Ireland the damage that can do when you demonize a whole group of people because of the behaviour of a few, and we do not want to go back there.”
Claire Hanna, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland, described the violence as a “race based pogrom”. “The online ecosystem that talked this up will move on now and the people of Belfast will be left picking up the pieces,” she told Reuters.
Smaller protests also took place outside parliament in London while other gatherings were reported across Britain.
In Northern Ireland, masked youths gathered early on Tuesday evening at points across Belfast, with police responding by deploying armoured vehicles. Rioters set fire to a number of cars across the city, while a bus was engulfed in flames in east Belfast.
The BBC reported that a crowd of 100 men kicked in doors and broke windows of homes on a street in east Belfast.
“They’re getting put out just because they’re Black,” Pastor Jack McKee told the BBC after attacks on homes in the north of the city.
The suspect in the stabbing, a 30-year-old Sudanese national, was charged on Tuesday evening with attempted murder, possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place and threats to kill.
He is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The victim, a man in his 40s, suffered significant injuries to his eyes and slash wounds to his face and back during the “brutal” attack, with a kitchen knife found at the scene, Northern Ireland’s Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said. Footage showed a number of members of the public trying to fight off the attacker before police arrived, and they were credited by senior officers with saving the man’s life.
Northern Ireland was also hit by anti-immigrant rioting last year amid anger over an alleged sexual assault. Charges against two boys were later withdrawn by the prosecution service.