Police officers take cover from gasoline bombs during rioting between Catholic and Protestant youths in Belfast, Northern Ireland early Thursday.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland, June 21 — The worst sectarian violence to hit Northern Ireland since the 1998 signing of the Good Friday peace accord rocked the city of Belfast late Wednesday and early Thursday. Police fired plastic bullets to quell riots involving as many as 600 people, authorities said Thursday. More than 40 police were injured in the unrest.
THE RIOTS may have been encouraged by Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups, according to police.
Officers in helmets and shields moved into the Ardoyne district, a Catholic enclave surrounded by Protestant neighborhoods, Wednesday night to separate several hundred young men and teen-agers from both sides of the divide.
The crowds threw stones and bottles at each other, as well as at police. Police returned fire with plastic bullets.
...