BALLYMENA: North­ern Irish police said on Tuesday that 15 officers were injured in clashes after “racially motivated” attacks sparked by the arr­est of two teenagers for attemp­ted rape of a young girl.

The disorder in the town of Ballymena, some 30 miles northwest of Belfast, broke out on Monday night after a vigil in a neighbourhood where an alleged serious sexual assault happened on Saturday.

“This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said. Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court earlier on Monday, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter, local media reports said.

The trouble began when masked people “broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties,” the police said.

Houses and businesses were attacked and three people had to be evacuated, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said, adding it was investigating “hate attacks”.

Security forces also came under “sustained attack”, pol­ice said, with petrol bom­bs, fireworks and bricks thrown by masked rioters, injuring 15 officers, including some who required hospital treatment.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2025