Petrol bombs have been thrown at the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) for a second night in the North of Ireland as loyalist paramilitaries continued to orchestrate violence.

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly said the scenes of petrol bombs being thrown were “a direct consequence of the actions of political unionism” and blamed the rhetoric of the unionist DUP for sending a “very dangerous message” to young people in loyalist areas.

Unionist anger at the PSNI police increased last week following a decision not to prosecute Sinn Fein politicians for attending the funeral of the late IRA leader Bobby Storey during Covid-19 restrictions.

PSNI raids on loyalist drug operations and tensions over Brexit are also seen as factors in the trouble, which began in Derry last week and the Belfast area over the weekend, but has now shifted to areas in County Antrim.

The worst violence was seen on Friday night, when youths some as young as 11 were involved in rioting understood to have been orchestrated by the loyalist crime gangs of the south Belfast UDA.

The PSNI said 27 members of the force were injured during the clashes in the Sandy Row area in the south city centre, which lasted for three hours and ended with seven arrests, including teenagers as young as 13 years of age.

On Saturday night another faction started riots: it was the South East Antrim UDA, which has been directly responsible for two nights of trouble in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast.

A crowd of some 20 masked older men gathered at a road intersection in the Cloughfern area, where on Saturday three cars were hijacked and set alight. One rioter appeared to set himself on fire as some 30 petrol bombs were thrown at PSNI vehicles.

More petrol bombs were thrown on Sunday night in the same area, although the trouble was briefer and dispersed quickly. 

The current wave of loyalist violence broke out after months of incitement by unionist politicians and media. 

After repeated calls for DUP leaders to denounce the riots this weekend were ignored, First Minister Arlene Foster finally responded with a warning on Sunday that causing injury to the PSNI “will not make things better”. Mrs Foster claimed that many young people were “hugely frustrated” and added: "I appeal to our young people not to get drawn into disorder, which will lead to them having criminal convictions and blighting their own lives.”