In brief
- A horrific stabbing in Belfast on Tuesday has prompted calls for anti-immigration protests.
- The suspect has been charged with attempted murder and will face court on Thursday.
Anti-immigration protesters torched a building and vehicles in Belfast on Wednesday evening and blocked roads, a day after a stabbing allegedly by a Sudanese refugee, captured in a graphic video that shocked the country.
Hundreds of protesters, many masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast, journalists from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency saw. A bus and several cars were set alight, while a building fringing the city centre caught fire and its residents had to be evacuated.
"By 7.30pm (4.30am AEST) they started fire in the bins ... we heard police cars and sirens," said one resident, Eemran, an engineer of Indian origin.
"More and more people started coming, they started throwing petrol bombs."
Police helicopters patrolled above the city and shops were also closed early.
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"Sporadic pockets of disorder have broken out in a number of locations across Northern Ireland this evening, including incidents in which a number of vehicles have been set on fire," Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said, urging calm.
Crowds also gathered in Antrim, around 25km west of Belfast.
US tech billionaire Elon Musk had earlier retweeted a post by anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — also known as Tommy Robinson — adding: "Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!"
The suspect in the knife attack, whose name has not been released, was charged late on Tuesday with attempted murder, possession of a bladed weapon in a public place and making threats to kill. The 30-year-old man is due to appear in court on Thursday.
As anti-immigration figures, including Reform party leader Nigel Farage and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, demanded details about the attacker, the interior ministry confirmed he was a Sudanese refugee with a residence permit valid until 2028.
Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher said he had arrived in the UK in 2023 via Paris and Dublin.
'Living in fear'
Police have ruled out a "terrorist-related" incident at this stage, Henderson said.
Tensions were already high in Britain after violent skirmishes last week in Southampton, southern England, over the police handling of the murder of a young white student stabbed to death by a British Sikh man.
On Wednesday, dozens of demonstrators also gathered there outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, carrying banners reading "no racism, just patriotism" and "enough is enough".
The video from Belfast shows a man straddling another man lying in a street and slashing him several times in the head and neck with a knife, in what far-right figures claimed was an attempted beheading.
Several people can then be seen intervening, one wielding a hurling stick, and tackling the perpetrator as police arrive.
The victim, a man in his 40s, "was taken to hospital with significant injuries to his eyes and serious slash wound injuries to his back and face," he told reporters.
Officers recovered what is believed to be a kitchen knife at the scene, Henderson confirmed.
A 31-year-old mother-of-one who lives nearby said the incident had terrified the neighbourhood. "We're just living in fear now," she told AFP.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident "horrific" and "sickening" on X.
The leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties issued a joint statement condemning the incident, saying "there is no place in our society for this kind of brutality".
"We call for calm and for space to allow justice to take its course," it added.
The leaders and police urged people not to share the video, noting its "graphic nature would only serve to re-traumatise those involved".
But numerous social media accounts linked to so-called "patriots" were sharing the footage, urging people to "protest against mass immigration into their communities".
'Profound implications'
The UK interior ministry confirmed the Sudanese suspect entered the country in 2023 and acquired refugee status the same year, allowing him to remain until 2028.
"There is no trace of this suspect on any of our national security databases, and he was not known to the Police Service of Northern Ireland," police chief Boutcher said.
Northern Irish MP Gavin Robinson, from the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said in parliament the incident "will have profound implications for community cohesion in this country".
He urged the government to "recognise that uncontrolled immigration needs to end".
Immigration has become a hot-button issue in Britain, and helped fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party in the polls.
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