Short Strand: Police say riot was 'orchestrated' by UVF

June 21st 2011

A senior police officer has described shots aimed at officers during rioting in east Belfast on Monday night as "attempted murder".

Violence erupted at a sectarian interface on the lower Newtownards Road and Mountpottinger Road around 2100 BST.

Chief Superintendent Alan McCrum said the trouble was "orchestrated" by the loyalist paramilitary group, the UVF.

Two men are being treated in hospital for gun shot wounds.

In all 11 shots were fired - six from the nationalist side and five from loyalists.

Two shots hit a police landrover. Police said it was "clearly an attempt to murder police officers".

Petrol bombs, fireworks, bricks, stones and smoke bombs were thrown and homes were damaged during the disturbances.

Chief Supt McCrum said the trouble started after a group of young men came out of the loyalist Mount and Castlereagh Street areas, and made their way into the Catholic enclave of Short Strand.

"That precipitated a response from the community in the Short Strand, and then we were left with two communities, who for the next four hours were seeking to involve themselves in conflict across what was, and continues to be a very challenging interface in the city."

[link to www.bbc.co.uk]