Police deploy water cannons as riots continue in Northern Ireland following Belfast knife attack

WorldPolitics
11 Jun 2026 • 3:29 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Police deploy water cannons as riots continue in Northern Ireland following Belfast knife attack

  • Police deployed water cannons against protesters in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland after officers were pelted with bricks amid the latest wave of disorder linked to the recent Belfast knife attack.
  • A Department for Infrastructure vehicle was set ablaze as demonstrators confronted police near the Sandyknowes roundabout in Newtownabbey, situated north-west of Belfast.
  • Footage captured dozens of men, clad in black and with faces obscured, congregating on Antrim Road.
  • They were seen tearing bricks from properties and using sledgehammers to smash paving stones, creating projectiles to hurl at riot police. Wheelie bins were also seized from outside homes and set alight.
  • Further acts of vandalism included balaclava-clad rioters breaching a metal fence to access the Sandyknowes Wastewater Pumping Station, and removing a garden fence to serve as a makeshift shield against the police water cannon.

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