Crowd attack police in Derry
Police came under attack from crowds of St Patrick’s night revellers in the centre of Derry tonight.
Vehicles were stoned in the Waterloo Place area and one officer suffered an eye injury, thought to have been caused by glass.
Officers were also attacked when trying to tend to a teenage girl struck by a bottle.
A police spokesman said the trouble appeared to be down to drunkenness among the large crowds following the city’s St Patrick’s Day parades.
In the Holyland area of Belfast close to Queen’s University there were reports of several incidents, said police.
Officers were maintaining a presence in the area, said a spokesman.
Queen’s University and the University of Ulster had earlier in the day warned students living in the area not to cause trouble for residents.
Both universities wrote to all students living in the area where there had been scene of disharmony with residents in recent months, urging them to behave over St Patrick’s Day and warning they would “deal severely” with anyone reported to them for anti social behaviour.
Queen’s Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Gerry McCormac, who visited the Holyland area during the day said : “Anti-social behaviour is not acceptable. Over the past month Queen’s University has imposed a range of sanctions from final written warnings and fines to suspension.
“Those sanctions become a part of a student’s record and could affect their lives beyond graduation.”
He said that following the letters to students appealing for them to behave he was “disappointed our appeal appears to have fallen on deaf ears.”
Professor McCormac said the university was closely monitoring the situation and students had to recognise that if they ignored advice to behave “they face the consequences.”
Drink was believed to be behind most of the trouble which came at the end of a day which saw tens of thousands attend St Patrick’s day events in town and cities across Northern Ireland.
