Three officers are shot by masked man in Belfast riots

Three police officers were shot and 27 of their colleagues injured during violent clashes with Catholic youths in Belfast before today's Protestant Orange Order parades.

About 200 protesters rioted into the early hours, throwing petrol bombs, stones and bottles at Northern Ireland police.

A masked man fired a shotgun and wounded the officers, including one woman, in one of the Irish Nationalist districts that cut the city in two.

Police said three officers were hit with pellets from a single shotgun blast, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.

Tensions in Northern Ireland run high during the annual parades to mark the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over his Catholic rival James II in 1690.

Several vehicles were hijacked and set alight as trouble flared before midnight. Ruth Patterson, a Protestant city councillor, said: "It was a scene of utter chaos afterwards. People were lying on the road screaming and there were nine ambulances there."

Police chief superintendent Mark Hamilton said the protesters were "intent on mayhem and destruction".