Man describes terror as homes set alight in Belfast riots

A man has described his terror as homes were set on fire during a second night of disorder that followed a knife attack in Belfast earlier this week.

Glengormley resident Paul Sharkey said he was "petrified" when he saw masked men walking up his street and setting fire to homes.

A clean-up is under way after disorder was mainly concentrated along one street in the Greater Belfast area, where police deployed water cannon to disperse a crowd.

Twelve police officers were injured and 16 people arrested after Wednesday night's violence. Health care workers were threatened and children evicted from their homes.

Riot police came under sustained attack from a group throwing bricks, bottles and pieces of wood at a major roundabout to the north-west of Belfast.

"It was terrifying," Sharkey told BBC News NI.

"A van was sat alight and pushed towards my home. I hardly slept a wink."

Across the city, a nurse was walking into work at the Ulster hospital in Dundonald, when she was confronted by masked men and chased.

Her union said she had done nothing wrong apart from having a "different colour of skin" to the majority of people who live in Northern Ireland.

Despite this, the union said, she "bravely" continued with her shift at the hospital.

"When we saw the call to arms on social media we knew our overseas members would be under threat," Patricia McKeown from Unison told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"There is no excuse for any of this. This is racism, pure and simple," she said.

She said it was "not good enough to call for calm" and urged leaders to take action.

The South Eastern Trust said it was "horrified" that a nurse on her way to work was "chased and intimated".

The union also said health workers had been left terrified after a "threat" was made against those from overseas who work at Whiteabbey hospital, County Antrim.

Meanwhile, staff living in the vicinity of Belfast City Hospital received letters through their doors, telling them to leave their homes or risk being burnt out.

The Belfast Trust said it was "appalled that some of our staff have been subjected to racist abuse".

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said international workers were "vital and provide an invaluable contribution to their patients and the wider community".

The intimidation and disorder followed a knife attack on Monday, where a man was left with serious injuries, including losing an eye.

Outrage and upset led to protests, some peaceful, but some turned into violent riots, and people were burned out of their homes on Tuesday.

One woman, who is originally from Sudan but who has lived in Northern Ireland since 2016, said families were now scared to stay in their homes.

Twasul Mohammed, a Sudanese resident of Belfast who works with community groups, said residents who were fearful of reprisals had sought refuge in a church after racial attacks on their homes.

Most of them were Sudanese, Somali, Syrian and Eritrean families, whose addresses had been posted on social media and they were now scared to stay in their houses, she said.

"We went into the houses and evacuated the families because we were on the phone to them,"

"They were terrified locking themselves in the bathroom because petrol bombs were being thrown into the houses.

"I am from Sudan myself, and a lot of the families put out last night are Sudanese as well. Some of them are families, I know they were terrified, kids were crying, women were crying.

"These are people who have fled the war in Sudan, and they are seeing the same things again and living the same things, it is overwhelming."

Meanwhile a primary school in west Belfast said that some of its children had been "forcibly evicted from their homes" by "angry mobs" and were spending Wednesday trying to find alternative accommodation.