Ballymena erupts in racial violence after assault case; police attacked, homes and cars torched.
Northern Ireland’s Ballymena has descended into two nights of violence, leaving police officers injured, homes ablaze and tensions soaring after riots erupted over an alleged sexual assault case involving a local teenage girl.
Masked mobs rampaged through the town on Tuesday night, launching Molotov cocktails, dismantling walls to hurl bricks, and using steel poles as weapons against riot police. Officers responded with water cannons and plastic baton rounds, but the violence raged on.
Authorities confirmed that the disorder, which they are investigating as racially motivated, followed a protest linked to the alleged assault. Two teenage boys, who requested a Romanian interpreter in court earlier that day, face charges of attempted rape.
As the violence intensified, police urged residents to avoid the area, warning of “serious disorder” unfolding just 45km (30 miles) from Belfast. Flames engulfed at least one home, while several vehicles were set alight as rioters swept through neighbourhoods. A second house narrowly escaped the same fate after a failed arson attempt.
Terrified residents have begun marking their front doors to display their nationality in a desperate effort to ward off attacks. The Belfast Telegraph reported that the markings are an attempt by locals to signal they are not part of the targeted migrant community.
Irish media have also reported growing fears of the violence spreading, with calls for protests in other Northern Irish towns circulating online.
During Monday’s initial unrest, four homes were torched while businesses and other residences saw windows and doors smashed. Police described the attacks as targeted hate crimes.
“The terrible scenes of civil disorder we have witnessed in Ballymena again this evening have no place in Northern Ireland,” stated Hilary Been, the UK’s Northern Ireland minister. “There is absolutely no justification for attacks on PSNI officers or for vandalism directed at people’s homes or property.”
The violence first ignited on Monday following a vigil near the scene of the alleged assault. Police say individuals wearing masks broke away from the peaceful gathering, erected barricades, stockpiled projectiles, and launched attacks on properties.
The charged atmosphere in Ballymena, a town with a sizeable migrant population, grew increasingly hostile as rumours and accusations swirled. Locals described the unfolding chaos as “terrifying,” with foreigners reportedly singled out as targets.
“This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” stated Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The PSNI confirmed 15 officers suffered injuries during Monday’s clashes, several of whom required hospitalisation after facing sustained attacks.
Among those affected was 52-year-old Cornelia Albu, a Romanian mother-of-two living across from one of the houses targeted by the mob. “Last night, it was crazy, because too many people came here and tried to put the house on fire,” she told AFP. Albu, who works in a factory, said her family now feels forced to move. “But I’m worried I won’t find anywhere else to live because I am Romanian.”
Northern Ireland, still grappling with deep-seated sectarian divisions from its troubled past, has rarely seen racially motivated riots on this scale. The Ballymena riots mark a disturbing escalation in tensions, as resentment and misinformation stoke violence against migrant communities.
Authorities remain on high alert, bracing for further unrest as calls for protests continue to circulate. For many in Ballymena’s migrant population, the past two nights have shattered any sense of safety, leaving entire communities fearing what may come next.
