Belfast, Northern Ireland – Violent anti-immigration protests broke out in parts of Belfast on Tuesday evening with masked protesters setting fire to buses, cars, rubbish bins and homes. Far-right figures have called on social media for more protests after last night's brutal attack in Northern Ireland's capital.
A graphic video of the incident, which shows a man slashing another man's head and neck with a knife, quickly went viral on the internet this morning. Police in Northern Ireland have arrested and charged a 30-year-old Sudanese man with attempted murder, possession of a knife in a public place and making threats to kill.
The suspect entered Northern Ireland, an independent region of the United Kingdom, after applying for asylum, and in 2023 he was granted a five-year UK visa. He is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday to face the charges.
The victim of this attack was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries to his eyes, face and back, said the police.
Despite requests for peace from the police and politicians from all major parties, dozens of masked protesters gathered in many places on Tuesday evening and caused violence, which one of the local lawyers in Belfast called “a pogrom based on race.”
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Claire Hanna, a member of the British parliament from Belfast and the Social Democratic & Labor Party, told the BBC's “Newsnight” program that people were “angry and shocked” by the stabbing, but she criticized the protesters for setting fires and said that some went door to door looking for immigrants.
BBC reporter Kelly Bonner said hundreds of masked men took to the streets of Lower Newtownards Road in Belfast carrying bottles and bricks, shouting “immigrants” as they set fire to rubbish bins. He said they went down the streets, beating and kicking doors and breaking windows.
“I once saw them trying to set fire to a car until a woman came out of her house and told them that it belonged to a 'local person and not an immigrant,' and they stopped,” reported Bonner.
Hanna said “bad actors online and local politicians who really don't care what the communities of north Belfast have been through” have deliberately fueled the unrest online.
“What you're seeing is a race-based pogrom,” he said, naming American tech giant Elon Musk, President Trump's ally and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and the British far-right Tommy Robinson as some of the prominent figures who circulated the scathing video and called for mass protests.
Many social media accounts called on people to take to the streets and “protest against mass immigration into their communities.”
Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill called the scenes of unrest “a crime without intent.”
“Groups of masked men burning families outside their homes is abhorrent cowardice,” O'Neill said in a statement posted on social media.
A video broadcast by BBC News showed dozens of people fleeing their homes in north Belfast after buildings were set on fire, and Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue said they responded to 62 incidents between 7pm and midnight. Other videos showed first responders helping to evacuate people from their homes after fires broke out in areas with high immigrant populations.
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John Finucane, a lawyer in Northern Ireland, called the scenes “disgraceful and disgraceful.” In a social media post, Finucane said he shared his disgust at the attack which sparked the protest but added: “No one has the right to spread fear, terrorize innocent families or create lawless chaos on our streets.”
Video of the stabbing attack, obtained by CBS News Confirmed, shows a man being brutally beaten and stabbed multiple times in the head and neck. It has been widely described on the internet as an attempted beheading. Police said there is no indication that it is related to terrorism, but the investigation is ongoing to determine the cause.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack “horrible” and “sickening.”
“I have absolutely no tolerance for scenes of such disgusting violence in our streets,” he said to X. “My thoughts go out to the victim, and I thank the first responders, including the members of the public who intervened.”
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Although most of the protesters CBS News met in Belfast on Tuesday evening were hostile to journalists, two men, who wished to be identified as Chris and John, said they were shocked by the video of the stabbing and felt compelled to come out and show solidarity with the victim, but they dismissed the violence and destruction in the streets.
Chris said he lives outside Belfast but works and attends church in the city. He and John come from different sides of two communities in Northern Ireland – broadly, nationalists from many Catholic families who want a united Ireland, and unionists, who are often Protestant and want the province to remain part of the UK – with a history of hatred and decades of violence. The two men said they went to the area to pray together after the stabbing.
“The concern is that people are surprised, but not surprised” by the attack, Chris told CBS News. “Look at the incident that happened in Southampton, and that is one of many,” he said of the incident. the execution of Henry Nowak in the south of Englandwhich sparked anti-immigrant protests and clashes with police earlier this month.
The police response to that case was hailed by activists and politicians as an example of what some call “two-party” policing – immigrants who are said to receive better treatment than British citizens. The police involved in this incident dismissed the case.
Vice President JD Vance was among the most prominent figures to criticize the handling of the Nowak case, writing on a social media site that the white youth would still be alive, “if the last few generations of the European elite had stood against the politics of self-hatred and the massive attack on immigrants, many of whom despise the west and the people they love.
Nowak was stabbed to death by Vickrum Digwa, a British-born Sikh who told police he was racially abused by Nowak. The court found that to be false. When the police arrived at the scene, they treated Nowak as a suspect as he was lying injured, and rejected his request for help and doubts as he said he had been stabbed, before finally seeing his injuries and trying to help him.
Digwa was sentenced to life in prison last week, with a minimum of 21 years in prison.
