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A police officer is injured after loyalists attacked police lines in Belfast on 12 January 2013
A police officer is injured after loyalists attacked police lines at the Albertbridge Road near the nationalist Short Strand area of Belfast on 12 January. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA
A police officer is injured after loyalists attacked police lines at the Albertbridge Road near the nationalist Short Strand area of Belfast on 12 January. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

Belfast riots: four police officers injured

This article is more than 11 years old
Officers taken to hospital following clashes between nationalists and loyalists in Castlereagh Street in east of the city

Four officers have been injured after police tried to quell sectarian clashes in Belfast on Saturday linked to the ongoing dispute over the city council's restrictions on flying the union flag.

The police officers were taken to hospital following rioting between nationalists and loyalists in Castlereagh Street in the east of the city.

The disorder broke out after hundreds of loyalist demonstrators passed by the Catholic Short Strand district just after 2.30pm. They had been returning from a loyalist rally outside Belfast city hall at lunchtime to protest against the council's decision to only fly the union flag on official occasions.

Loyalists claimed that they were attacked first as nationalist youths from the Short Strand threw bricks and bottles as they were coming back from the protest. Police were attacked by both sides.

There is currently a tense standoff in the area, with lines of armoured police vehicles, some of them with giant canvas screens, and dozens of riot squad officers standing in between rival groups of loyalists and nationalists. A number of senior loyalist politicians, including the leader of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist party Billy Hutchinson, have arrived in the area to try to prevent further violence.

Part of the Belfast to Dublin railway line had to be closed earlier on Saturday after a small but viable pipebomb device was found in Donegall Avenue. A number of homes had to be evacuated during a security operation to deal with the bomb while rail passengers travelling from Dublin had to be taken by bus from Newry to Belfast.

Around 70 police officers have been injured and more than 100 arrests made during weeks of trouble, and businesses in Belfast's city centre have struggled to cope, with many reporting lost trade. The Confederation of British Industry warned that some investors will be reluctant to invest in a region that appears unstable.

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