Police injured in sectarian fighting

THE government was under pressure last night to install new peace barriers urgently at a flashpoint area in Belfast, after fierce sectarian rioting left three police officers injured.

Shots were fired at police and at least 20 petrol-bombs hurled during overnight clashes between loyalist and nationalist mobs in the east of the city.

John Reid, the Northern Ireland Secretary, branded the culprits thugs, but Sir Reg Empey, a senior Ulster Unionist, demanded fences be put up to separate Catholics in the Short Strand enclave from Protestants on the Newtownards Road.

Police said the crowds also threw acid-bombs, stones, bottles and other missiles at officers during two and a half hours of trouble at the Thistle Court peace line.

Meanwhile, Mark Durkan, the leader of the nationalist SDLP party, has written to Downing Street to demand that two soldiers convicted of murdering the Belfast teenager Peter McBride be thrown out of the army.