Security forces become focus of Derry rioting as attitudes harden across North

DERRY'S third night of violence reflected the hardening attitudes across the North. There were far fewer rioters on the streets in the early hours of Sunday morning than on previous nights but they were older and more organised and the violence was this time firmly focused on the security forces.

For the first time this week, full scale barricades were built on the edge of the Bogside. A hijacked lorry was used to push burned out vehicles into place and the "front line" was drawn across Little James Street, just yards from the spot where Mr Dermot McShane (35) was killed by a British army vehicle early on Saturday morning.

Black flags and bouquets marking the spot where he fell divided the no man's land between the main barricade and the security forces, as the battle raged from about 1.30 a.m. until long after dawn. A pub and a paint shop opposite the spot where Mr McShane died were destroyed by fire during the night.

The RUC put the number of rioters at 200 but said the attacks were of equal ferocity to those of the night before, when up to 2,000 were involved. A police spokesman claimed that part of the rioters' strategy this time was to lure RUC and army into positions from which they could come under terrorist attack.

The security forces were noticeably more tense than on previous nights. Army vehicles facing the barricades fixed searchlights on the windows of high buildings around them in case of snipers, as they again fired hundreds of plastic bullets at the rioters.

The security forces were also more aggressive in dealing with the media. One of a group of reporters trapped in an alleyway - at a time when rioters were rushed - was punched and kicked by an RUC officer and a second had a rifle pushed against his neck.

With all pubs in the city centre closed because of Saturday's fatality, the trouble started earlier.

After setting up barricades, groups of youths then attempted to draw the RUC in. Petrol bombs were thrown at police headquarters and at patrols on the edge of the city centre.

The police fired sporadic bursts of plastic bullets but kept their distance. The stand off continued for more than an hour, at which point police and army suddenly took the offensive, swamping the east end of the city centre at 1.20 a.m.

As a result of the violence, nine people were treated in Altnagelvin Hospital for plastic bullet injuries and two were detained overnight.

One of the young men helped back to the improvised first aid centre in Lecky Road had blood streaming from his ear and another had difficulty breathing after being hit in the back.

Bogside residents said many of the injured were either not going to hospital or were going across the Border, however, to avoid the attentions of the RUC at Altnagelvin.

A spokeswoman for Letterkenny General Hospital said yesterday that eight people with addresses in Northern Ireland had been treated overnight, and a total of 15 since the disturbances began on Thursday. There were no reported injuries on Sunday among the RUC or army.

The trouble on Thursday and Friday nights was more scattered.

It began as pubs and discos emptied around 12.30 am and initially involved attacks on RUC patrols and city centre businesses. On both nights, the RUC flooded the city centre and was then backed by the British army as they used baton charges and plastic bullets to clear the area. The battle then continued at the William Street entrance to the Bogside until 6 a.m.

The police have been criticised on both nights for allegedly opening fire on young people as they emerged from pubs and fast food restaurants. The family of the youth critically injured on Friday night claimed he had been hit twice, first in the chest and then.

In the temple, as he left a disco - where he had gone to collect his sister. They insisted he was not involved in disturbances.

The Creggan man who died on Saturday morning, Mr Dermot McShane, was among a group who were attacking police and army lines using a large sheet of board as a shield against plastic bullets. Eyewitnesses said a British army Saxon APC - an armoured personnel carrier weighing approximately 10,000 kg - vehicle drove against the board, knocking it over, with Mr McShane underneath.

The vehicle stopped, witnesses said, but then drove over the board, fatally injuring Mr McShane. The RUC said a policeman who went to his aid was slashed in the face with a broken bottle but other witnesses said that youths who had attempted to rescue him were fired on with plastic rounds.

Saturday night's violence was different. The scene was set by the closure at 6 p.m. of all city centre pubs and businesses as a mark of respect to the dead man. A huge protest march then moved in silence from Free Derry corner through the walled city, to the RUC headquarters at Strand Road and back to the city centre.

At Strand Road, the British army positioned four Saxon APCs and a dozen Land Rovers in an open space opposite the barracks.

In the city centre, the Sinn Fein ardcomhairle member, Mr Martin McGuinness, addressed the crowd of around 10,000, after a minute's silence. He said the events of the past week represented nothing less than the rape of an entire community and that the whole country was seething with anger.

The British government, the unionist parties and the RUC were to blame for what had happened, he added.

He himself had been struggling against the British army and the RUC for 25 years, he added, and he could understand the feelings of young people who wanted to fight them. But he said he did not want to see young people killed and injured. He accused the security forces of using plastic bullets in an attempt to murder. He called on people to turn out in numbers for another march on Sunday to show "in the most peaceful way possible that we will not lie down under the jackboot of the British government".

. Mrs Treasa McShane, wife of Mr Dermot McShane, said yesterday she hoped her husband's death had not been in vain. The American born Mrs McShane was laying a wreath at the spot where he was fatally injured. She said: "I just hope his death was for something - not for nothing. I just wanted to come to this spot," she said as she leaned on her teenage son for support.

The father of two stepsons, an employee at local car part manufacturers, Transtec, Mr McShane had simply been enjoying a Friday night out drinking with friends, his wife said.