Two days of anti-immigration violence in Northern Ireland is nothing short of racist thuggery, Britain's minister for the province says, after police deployed water cannon to tackle rioters for a second night.
Hilary Benn said there was less disorder on the streets of Belfast on Wednesday night as opposed to Tuesday, when rioters targeted ethnic minorities and foreign residents by torching homes and vehicles following a knife attack for which a Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder.
But many of those who did clash with police on Wednesday were seeking to get to a hotel outside Belfast that has been targeted in the past for housing asylum seekers.
