Anti-immigration protests have escalated into clashes with police in several towns in Northern Ireland this week, marking a new wave of unrest to hit the United Kingdom.
Disorder in towns across the region continued for a fourth night on Thursday. In Portadown, County Armagh, a crowd used bricks and masonry from a derelict building to throw at police.
About 40 officers have been injured, and 15 arrests have been made.
Protests began in Ballymena, a town of about 31,000 people located 40km (25 miles) northwest of the city of Belfast, on Monday when two Romanian 14-year-old boys were arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
The most intense violence took place on Tuesday in Ballymena, when hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set buildings and cars on fire. A smaller crowd threw rocks, fireworks and petrol bombs at police on Wednesday, as police officers responded with water cannon.
Masked rioters also set fire to a leisure centre in Larne, about 30km (19 miles) away from Ballymena, on the coast, where some immigrant families had been given shelter following the unrest in Ballymena.
Violence also spilled over to the cities of Belfast, Coleraine, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus, Antrim and Lisburn.








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