is preparing for the possibility that, when protests against the immigrant population unleashed clashes resulting in more than 100 police officers injured and dozens arrested. The attempt, on Monday night, by a Sudanese man in his 30s to behead another man in his 40s in northern Ireland with a kitchen knife has altered the mood and stimulated fears among much of the Northern Irish population.
Late on Tuesday, at least a hundred masked men had gathered in Whiteabbey, north of Belfast, to begin throwing stones at several buildings. A city bus has been set on fire.
At Freedom Corner, east of the city, a couple of hundred protesters wearing masks have gathered to start another protest. The city’s subway and tram have been suspended to avoid further altercations. Some road access to the Northern Irish capital, such as the M2, has been blocked by protesters.
Police presence on the streets of Belfast has increased markedly, and in some areas small groups of protesters could be seen throwing stones and other objects at PSNI armored vehicles.
In different areas of the city, protesters have set private vehicles and garbage containers on fire.
The incident that sparked these protests, as reported by , occurred around ten thirty at night (11:30 p.m. in mainland Spain). The alleged murderer, who is in custody, tried to end his victim’s life with knives. Images that have circulated on social media suggest that he was trying to decapitate the other man, on whom he was sitting astride.
In the video you can see how a group of citizens attack the aggressor. One of them hits him with a hurleythe flat wooden baton used in the game of hurling. Shortly after, the police arrive at the scene of the incident, a few meters from an apartment complex in the neighborhood of .
As explained by the deputy assistant commissioner of the PSNI, Ryan Henderson, the detainee is of Sudanese origin. He traveled to Paris, from there to Dublin and then by bus to Belfast, in Northern Ireland, where the British Home Office had granted him a five-year temporary visa, on September 28, 2023. The police have used the fact that the investigation is in a very early phase to not confirm whether the detainee had entered Northern Irish territory regularly or irregularly.
“For the moment,” Henderson said, “we rule out that there are more people involved in the incident or that what happened has any terrorist component.”
The alleged murderer has already been formally charged and will appear in criminal court this Wednesday.
Investigators did not want to provide information about the victim beyond his condition, which remains serious, with injuries to his eye, back and face.
Both the aggressor and the victim were residents of the neighborhood where the incident occurred.
Political reactions and protests
has been one of the first to react to an incident loaded with potential social conflict. “The terrible attack that occurred in Belfast last night is disgusting,” he wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “There will be absolutely no tolerance for these abhorrent scenes of violence on our streets.”
The Minister for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, who has urgently appeared in Parliament to report what happened, has joined the police call and asked citizens and political parties for calm. There are protests called in Belfast for this Tuesday afternoon, and the police have prepared a special deployment to prevent violent altercations. The request to businesses, on the other hand, is to keep their doors open.
“No one will gain anything by stirring up fear and tension, making the situation even more dangerous for innocent people,” said Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long.
“Today my message is to ask citizens for calm,” said the Chief Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill (from the Republican party Sinn Féin), on the steps of Stormont Palace, where the Autonomous Assembly resides, accompanied by the Deputy Chief Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly (from the DUP unionists) and the Chief Commissioner of the PSNI, Jon Boutcher. “Let us not allow those who care nothing about our people to incite hatred and fear. Let us not allow these faceless individuals to orchestrate their campaigns in the streets,” asked O’Neill, who shares the fear of parties and institutions that the incident will be the trigger for a new wave of violence on the streets of Northern Ireland.
The attempted murder comes at a time of great tension in the United Kingdom, who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying after being stabbed, after his killer, a man of Indian origin and Sikh religion, falsely claimed that it was a racist attack.
“We support the PSNI in its ongoing investigation, and we ask all those who have information or images of the incident to help. It is essential that the facts are established in the appropriate way. We are committed to ensuring that violence and hatred do not divide our communities. We ask everyone to calm so that justice can work,” all the deputies of the Home Rule Assembly of Northern Ireland have claimed in a joint statement.
