Police Officers Injured In Belfast Rioting

A number of police officers have been injured after disturbances broke out when an Orange Order parade was halted in Belfast.

Police were pelted with bricks, bolts and bottles after preventing loyalists from marching from the unionist Woodvale area toward the nationalist Ardoyne area of the city.

At least 25 officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have been injured, including one who required twelve stitches to a finger after being bitten during an assault.

Water cannon were deployed to try and quell the unrest, which came after a day of largely peaceful Twelfth of July holiday loyal order parades across Northern Ireland.

The annual parades mark the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Roman Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

The Orange Order has condemned those who rioted and appealed for calm, calling their actions "not only counter-productive but also plain wrong".

First Minister Peter Robinson said: "Such behaviour is wrong and will be condemned by all right thinking people.

"The PSNI is tasked with upholding the rule of law and it is vital that those involved in such riotous activity cease and are held accountable.

"They do a massive disservice to the wider cause they claim to support."

Mark Lindsay, chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, said the scenes were "deplorable and shameful" and that those involved had "obviously come prepared to cause disorder".

He added: "The behaviour of those who viciously targeted police lines was mindless and unacceptable."

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Theresa Villiers also condemned the violent scenes.

She said: "Those responsible do nothing to further the cause they claim to promote.

"They damage Northern Ireland and wreck a day which should be about respectful celebration of cultural tradition."

The violence flared after riot squad officers from the PSNI blocked access to the contested stretch of the Crumlin Road.

Items were thrown at them within minutes of the parade reaching police lines.

A number of loyalists broke through police lines and danced on the bonnets of PSNI armoured land rovers at one point.

Loyalist bandsmen played the sectarian Famine Song and the well-known loyalist tune The Sash.

Women and children were among the bandsmen and Orange Order members in the crowd barracking police lines.

Earlier, a bus carrying Orangemen was reportedly stoned in Greysteel, County Londonderry, while police said a female officer was assaulted in Belfast city centre.

On the other side of police lines, a young girl was reportedly struck by a car as republicans gathered at a row of shops on the edge of the Ardoyne.

Police officers at the scene reportedly lifted the car off the girl, who is understood to be aged 16.

The driver of the vehicle has been arrested.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly, assembly member for North Belfast, said her injuries are not life threatening.

A large security operation has been mounted at the Woodvale/Ardoyne sectarian interface, where dissident republicans have attacked police in the past.

The Government-appointed Parades Commission, which rules on contentious marches, had issued a determination barring Orangemen from part of the Crumlin Road.

There was no rioting last year, but in 2013 - when restrictions were imposed on the Orange Order parade for the first time - mass violence broke out in the unionist Woodvale area.

Republicans have rioted in previous years when the parade was allowed to pass up the road on the way back from Belfast's main Twelfth commemoration.