Belfast fears more violence

Security forces are preparing for more trouble today near Holy Cross primary school in Belfast after some of the worst sectarian rioting for years.

Seventeen police officers were injured as fighting erupted between nationalist and loyalist crowds near the school in north Belfast, which will be closed today to try to calm the situation. Hundreds of police and soldiers will be on patrol.

The violence has shattered several months of uneasy peace in the dispute over Catholic children walking to school along a Protestant street. Yesterday, windows were broken and cars attacked when the children, some as young as four, were preparing to leave. They had to be taken home by bus.

Police in armoured vehicles came under attack from petrol bombs and fireworks that left one vehicle in flames. Three men were injured by what is believed to have been a shotgun blast. One was hit in the head but none is thought to be seriously injured.

The chairman of the primary school's board of governors, Father Aidan Troy, is meeting teachers today to decide if it is possible to continue if the situation worsens.

Protestant community worker Mark Coulter said the fighting was sparked when a wreath in memory of a local taxi driver murdered in 2000 was removed from a lamp-post.