Londonderry attacks being treated as sectarian hate crimes

There have been appeals for calm in Londonderry following a number of incidents in the city over the weekend which police have described as sectarian hate crimes.

Officers are investigating an assault on three young men in the Nelson Drive area of the city, an organised fight in Derry’s Waterside, an attack on a bus returning to the city and a paint bomb attack on a mural in the city’s Fountain estate.

Police came under attack from youths throwing bricks, bottles and fireworks in one of the incidents while a vehicle carrying two police dogs was also targeted.

“Anyone who engages in anti-social behaviour needs to consider the consequences of their actions,” Ch Insp Luke Moyne said.

“We are continuing to work with relevant partners and stakeholders, focusing our patrols where they are needed and taking positive action where we can,” the senior officer added.

All of the incidents happened between 18:30 BST on Saturday and 23:35 on Sunday and are believed to be linked.

Community and political representatives have condemned the incidents and called for calm.

Police said in the first incident three young men were in Nelson Drive were chased by a gang of around ten youths and assaulted in a garden at Caw Close.

Their attackers jumped over a wall and used garden furniture to launch an assault. The three victims managed to get away.

At around 17:00 on Sunday, officers responded to a report of an arranged fight in the Irish Street area of the Waterside involving a large crowd of youths, some of who wore masks.

Bricks, bottles and fireworks were thrown by and at youths, and at police. A bus and another vehicle travelling through the area were also damaged.

A vehicle carrying two police dogs was also damaged in the Irish Street area at around 22:50 on Sunday.

Two males have been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage in relation to that incident.

Earlier, at around 20:40, a mural in the Fountain was targeted with paint bombs while later in the same area a vehicle belonging to a member of the public was reported to have been damaged while travelling through the estate.

Police said the Nelson Drive assault and the attacks on the bus and mural are being treated as sectarian hate crimes.

Footage of each of those incidents has been widely shared on social media.

Fountain community worker Brian Dougherty condemned the incidents over the weekend.

“There seems to have been an unfortunate build up of tensions,” he told BBC News NI.

Strong leadership is needed now “to help ensure it doesn’t get out of hand,” he said.

“It has to stop. We need to make sure we have the structures and the good will in place to make sure it does stop.”

Democratic Unionist Party MLA Gary Middleton said it had “been a deeply disturbing weekend of intimidation and attacks in Londonderry,”

“As with previous incidents I strongly condemn any acts of violence and intimidation,” he added.

Calling on anyone with information to come forward, Middleton added: “Our children and young people deserve better, as we all do.”

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) assembly member Mark Durkan said footage of the assault in Nelson Drive had left him “sickened”.

“It is important that peace prevails and no retaliation is sought, inevitably innocent people will get hurt or even worse.”

Sinn Féin councillor Christopher Jackson also urged anyone with information to come forward.

He described the attack on the teenagers in Nelson Drive as “appalling”.

“There can be no place for sectarianism and such attacks in this society but neither can there be any justification for the subsequent disturbances which took place throughout the wider Top of the Hill area on Sunday.

“Now is the time for calm and to allow the proper authorities to get on with their job of bringing those responsible for the attack to justice.”