Protesters torch cars, buildings in UK’s Belfast after knife attack

Anti-immigrant protesters in Northern Ireland’s capital city of Belfast in the United Kingdom have torched vehicles and buildings after a Sudanese man was arrested over a knife attack that left one person with serious injuries.

Hadi Alodid, 30, appeared in a Belfast court on Wednesday accused of carrying out the stabbing on Monday, which was captured on camera and shared widely online.

It emerged during the court hearing that the male victim in his 40s, who police had said suffered stab wounds to his eyes, face and back, lost an eye during the attack.

On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters, many of them masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast, setting fire to a bus and several cars. A building near the city centre was also set alight, with residents telling the AFP news agency that the protesters started a fire in the bins and went on to throw petrol bombs.

Crowds also gathered in Antrim, about 25km (15 miles) west of Belfast.

Michelle O’Neill, the first minister of Northern Ireland, slammed the protests and urged calm. “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she wrote on X. “Racism, intimidation and violence are wrong wherever they occur. There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight. No one wants to see this on our streets and I again appeal for calm”.

Appeals for calm

“I understand that last night’s attempted murder will leave people feeling a range of emotions, from fear to anger,” Northern Ireland’s Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson told ⁠a news conference, as he declared the unrest a “critical incident”.

“I appeal for calm and the safety of all of our communities in ⁠response to this”, he said.

In a statement posted on Wednesday on a local politician’s Facebook page, the victim’s family said that the “overnight unrest is not welcome”, adding that they “do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility”.

Footage of the knife attack in north Belfast showed several members of the public trying to fight off the ⁠attacker before police arrived, with senior officers crediting them for saving the man’s life.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack “horrific” and “sickening” on X. “I have absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets,” he said.

His office said that “it is time for calm”, adding: “It’s important that police have the time and space to investigate appropriately.”

The UN rights chief, Volker Turk, on Wednesday said that the anti-immigrant violence rocking Northern Ireland was “shocking”, criticising “incitement” on social media and elsewhere.

“Dehumanisation of whole groups within a society is totally unacceptable,” Turk told reporters in Geneva, calling on social media platforms to “take the responsibility seriously that dehumanisation, hate speech, violence, and any incitement to violence is unacceptable”.

Heightened tensions

The attack, which is ⁠not being treated as terrorism, comes at a time of heightened tensions in the UK following the murder of a student in Southampton who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer, a Sikh man, had falsely alleged a racist attack.

Although the victim and convicted killer were both British, protesters on Tuesday stood outside a Southampton hotel that had housed asylum seekers, holding signs that read, “Illegal Migration Is Destroying Our Civilisation”.

The attack in Belfast, meanwhile, sparked immediate questions about the suspect’s immigration status, including from some politicians.

Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, urged authorities to curb “uncontrolled immigration”, while anti-immigration figures, including Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, demanded details about the attacker.

Northern Ireland’s chief constable, Jon Boutcher, told reporters that the suspect was living in the UK on a five-year visa granted in September 2023. Boutcher said he was believed to have travelled from Sudan to Paris and Dublin before claiming asylum in Belfast.

“There is no trace of this suspect on any of our national security databases, and he was not known to the Police Service of Northern Ireland,” he added.

Northern ‌Ireland’s ‌main political party leaders jointly condemned the knife attack, calling it “horrific” and saying that “there is no place in our society for this kind of brutality”. They also called for calm, saying that disturbances would only damage their communities.