Protests take place in Belfast following knife attack

OK, let's go back to our story in Belfast now.And as we've been reporting, protesters have gathered in Belfast where they have set bins and buses alight.Let's just go straight to Conor Gillies.And Conor, just give us a sense of where you are and what's going on.

The tension has ramped up quite considerably since we last appeared in the last half an hour or so.We have moved 10 minutes up the road into another part of the city and there has been quite a dramatic police moment in the last few minutes where police units came driving down here bashing through the barricades.some of the protesters had put in place.Sirens blaring because this is the scene here.Protesters have set fire to part of the road to try and make their point as community tensions flare up here in Northern Ireland.If we spin round here in this housing estate, We have yet another fire as part of this as well and the security intelligence from our team here on the ground is that potentially the police were coming to tackle some of the crowds that have gathered slightly further up the road here, but were diverted.

So they came down here, pushing through the barriers in an attempt to clear that, and have now gone on to something potentially bigger and more significant.The protesters, though, have now reinstated the barriers here, as you can see.So this is very much continuing.And just across this city, you can hear bangs.You can smell smoke in the air here.because let's remember there is anger here as to the events of last night that were captured on camera, broadcast for the world to see.

A man pinned to the ground here in Belfast as a knife was plunged into his body.He is still in hospital in a serious condition here in this city this evening with wounds to his neck, his head and to his back.Looking over here again, another flare up, more smoke billowing into the sky as well.And some of the details have emerged today from the police who are urging calm here in the city.They are saying...Yes, protest is legitimate, but there is no reason to take the law into your own hands.

They are on top of it when it comes to this police investigation.They have detained a man, they have detained a suspect who has now been charged in the past few hours.Details emerging about the identity of that individual, we understand him to beSudanese national, made a journey from Sudan to Paris a number of years ago, then Paris to Dublin, onto the island of Ireland, and then a bus journey from Dublin to here in Belfast, where he claimed asylum in 2023 and was subsequently granted leave to remain with a visa extending, we understand, until at least 2028.Police here say there was no face of him on the national security database and there is nothing to suggest that the events of the last 24 hours are terror -related.But there is a feeling here that immigration is a problem and that is why they are taking to the streets in the way that they are, not just in one community but in pockets of communities across the city.

You might even be able to hear the pop, the bangs, the smoke continuing into the sky here.We will keep an eye on developments as the evening progresses here in Sky News, but certainly tensions seem to be ramping up, not cooling down at this stage.

Conor, we can see the smoke behind you, we can't hear the popping, but As you say, police are calling for calm and they're telling people not to take matters into their own hands.But they are deeply concerned that this situation could potentially escalate.Are you starting to see more people come out as the evening goes?

Well, certainly hundreds of people have been in the locations that we have witnessed this evening.It's hard to pull that together in terms of definite numbers.As a comparison, around this time last year, I was in the town of Ballymena here in Northern Ireland covering protests that were sparked in the wake of a sexual assault on a child.And that, in comparison to this at the moment, that seemed more significant because it was more concentratedin a smaller area.Clearly, Belfast is a city and with that comes more pockets of clashes, more pockets of potential violence, more pockets of people trying in an attempt to make their voice known.

So in pure comparative terms, when we look at the experience of Ballymena 12 months ago, this feels not as significant yet, but it's more spread out and that will be a challenge, a policing challenge as well given the stretch on resources here but it all stretches back to what the PSNI, the police chief here in Northern Ireland said.that he appealed for CAM, as did the protesters, as did some other community leaders here in Northern Ireland.And we need to wait and see how the next few hours pan out.Again, our presence is not particularly welcome here.So I'll hand back to you, Yalda.

Thanks so much, Connor.Really grateful for your reporting.You're looking at those images from the helicopter in the area where you can see some of those demonstrators gathering.As Connor was saying, their tensions are high at the moment as protesters gather in different communities across Belfast following that knife attack.And you're looking at those live pictures.As we reported earlier, bins have been set alight and a bus was on fire.

understand it's still on fire in the city centre.The traffic has also been blocked as people gather in other towns as well in Northern Ireland.But police have called for calm.Let's just bring in our police commentator now, Graeme Whetton.Graeme, thanks so much for for joining us.Just give us a sense of the concern that

have in this moment because Connor was saying, you know, people are clearly visibly very angry.They're not happy about the cameras being there.We can see the bins on fire as well as a bus that was set alight.But police continue to call for calm.

Yes they do.I think this was a concern from the police commanders and even politicians that this would escalate.People would use it to actually, for their own causes, set vehicles on fire as we're seeing.It's spread literally across Belfast.We had some aerial pictures earlier on when I was commenting.You can see it's from one part of Belfast to the other.

So the issue for police command teams and police resources is having the resources to deal with different pockets of disorder.And as darkness starts to fall, that may well increase as the night comes on.People may feel emboldened to come out with the cover of darkness.As ever with Belfast, there's always the possibility of fireworks, firearms or even explosives being used during protests and disorder.We've seen that historically.So that will also be a concern for the authorities to actually deal with that if that starts to happen.

Hopefully it won't.And what we see is actually what's going to transpire through the evening, but more areas of disorder, different pockets of disorder.Hopefully it won't be more numbers, but more numbers coming out into the street will cause an issue for police commanders and their resources.

Yeah, and one of the other things that the authorities, Graham, continue to say is they do not want to see this movement weaponised, that what happened was horrific.The man has been charged with attempted murder.He is in police custody.And they are calling on these demonstrators not to take matters into their own hands.

Yes they have, but I think as we're seeing now, and events transpiring throughout the last couple of hours, they are taking it into their own hands, it is being weaponised, they're reacting to other people urging them to come out onto the street and protest.This isn't peaceful protest.You've heard the politicians saying peaceful protest will be facilitated.The police have said that they're happy and content to facilitate peaceful protest.The police are not the enemy here and neither the community.The only people who suffer from disorder and violence and damage like this is the actual community that this awful attack took place in.

And we saw the heroics of the community last night in coming out and preventing that attack and allowing the police to detain him and then arrest and and charge him earlier on today.So the only thing this is going to impact is the actual community.Police commanders will be hoping this dissipates and people start to go home and leave the area.But as you just heard from Connor, it seems like it's starting to escalate.So hopefully, the police will be able to deal with any incidents of disorder and start to quell it.

Just talk us through the pockets of demonstrations that are taking place.Have police started to barricade some of these areas?How are they trying to keep it under control?

It's a very difficult and challenging situation.the whole geography of it, knowing where everybody is and where they're moving to.We've seen some of the earlier aerial images that they're clearly residential areas with lots of like alleyways and roadways and pathways that they can use.Police command teams will normally, their tactics will be to try and keep them in certain areas, but you're seeing it spread across the city centre.So that makes it really problematic to start managing your resources.And the resources are finite.

You haven't got loads and loads of resources to put into the city centre.public order trained officers and resources to come into the city centre to deal with the disorder and the damage that we're seeing.So it does become a challenge for the police commanders to actually manage different incidents, different outbreaks of disorder with sufficient resources to manage it in areas.They will try and contain it if they can and move it into certain areas or certain locations that they are more comfortable and confident in dealing with any disorder there.But that is a real challenge for them if it's spread as we've seen earlier on.across the city centre.

Graeme, we're going to keep you there and go to our correspondent, Dan Whitehead, who joins us now from a part of Belfast.And Dan, just talk us through what's going on where you are.

Are you sure you don't want to show your face?No.

We're on Lower Newton Ards Road for the evening here.This is the epicentre so far of some of the violence that's erupted.It's where we saw that bus set on fire earlier this evening.We've managed to get a little bit closer because the crowds now have slightly dispersed.There are still people here though, somewhere in Balaclava.You can see now quite clearly how this started.

There's a number of bins in the middle of the road.some of which are on fire.They were pushed into the road and next to that bus, the wreckage of which you can see smouldering on the left there, and that is the remains of that large sort of double bus which was set on fire earlier.This evening, obviously, throughout today, we have been hearing the call for calm from the police, calm from politicians, and that has not materialised here.This was really the first flashpoint.I think what we're seeing at the moment is not violence in significant numbers, but it's different pockets across Belfast.

So we are hearing the sort of groups of 100 or so either way in different areas of the city.On Shankill Road, we've seen police ramming through barriers, a fire there.But there isn't, at the moment, a significant large group of people.But look, the night is young and we'll see what happens, hopefully.Perhaps the weather, it has dried off now, but it has been quite wet throughout the evening.Hopefully that has kept people indoors.

But you can see here, this is the flashpoint, look, less than 24 hours on from that horrific attack, about a mile and a half away from where we are.This is the violence.that's unfolded so far on the streets of Belfast.At the scene there, the investigation work continues.Of course, they have now charged a 30 -year -old man with attempted murder and other offences and he is going to appear in court here in Belfast at 10 o 'clock tomorrow morning.But the investigation work, of course, continues at a pace.

And the locals around that area in the north of the city, very close to where that attack happened.You could tell it was quite an eerie atmosphere.They were quite worried.They were on their doorsteps, concerned about what might unfold tonight.The call for calm from politicians, the call for restraint and calm from police as well, obviously has not been adhered.The hope is that it doesn't get any more serious and doesn't escalate as the night draws in.

Yeah, Dan, interesting you were saying that the crowd have started to disperse where you are.I was just speaking to Connor, who's in another part of Belfast, and he said that it felt where he was, that things were escalating.It's clearly that there are different pockets of protesters, and that could cause different pockets of escalation or violence.certainly it seems where you are perhaps it's quite down for now.

Yeah I mean look this is a city which is built on fractions and divisions in the past and you know that is what we are seeing tonight that is what it looks like that the police are having to deal with different areas different sections and little pockets as you say of violence erupting so that is the difficulty at the moment you can see there the flames increasing here on the bins next to that bus.The crowds have dispersed from this area in the east of the city for now.There's a few people still hanging around.The fire engines actuallywho were attacking that, they left a few moments ago with their sirens blazing, perhaps going to reports of yet another blaze.It does, of course, stretch the authorities thin.

You know, look, the PS and I are well versed in dealing with situations in Belfast.But when it does separate and when it is fragmented across the city, it, of course, makes the the challenge of policing on the streets here even more difficult.What they will be hoping is that the numbers don't swell to more than the sort of one or two hundred in pockets that we have been seeing because of course that is when more resources is needed in one area and if that's the case of course it stretches the police resources even further.