Clashes have taken place between the PSNI and nationalist protesters in west Belfast.
Police came under pertol bomb attack and a number of baton rounds were discharged at protesters attacking an Orange Order parade in a Nationalist area of west Belfast.
The trouble began when Catholic protesters saw Orangemen walking up a contested part of the Springfield Road.
As the crowd shouted abuse and threw several missiles, police lines surged forward.
Running battles then broke out between police and up to 400 protesters as they were forced down the road.
Missiles were thrown at police who returned fire with a large number of baton rounds.
Police officers and civilians were injured as ambulances rushed to the scene. Earlier, the crowd had thrown missiles at police and burned Union flags as community workers struggled to maintain calm.
Around 30 police jeeps and a number of army vehicles had kept the protesters around 100 yards from the disputed section of the route, at the junction of Workman Avenue and the Springfield Road.
Earlier today, a bomb has been diffused and police have been attacked as Twelfth of July tensions begin to mount in the North. And following the discovery of a hoarde of weapons in Ardoyne this morning, police are preparing further outbreaks of violence through this evening.
British army technical experts this afternoon defused a bomb in Belfast city centre close to the Orange Order's main parade route.
Dissident republicans have been accused planting the device containing fuel in a van in Little Donegal Street.
In Ballymena, Co Antrim, around 200 nationalists attacked police with bricks, bottles and fireworks after being held back from an Orange parade.
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Before this afternoon's trouble, the Twelfth of July parades had passed off with only one incident of violence, as tens of thousands of Orangemen took to the streets.
This morning, a line of armoured vehicles, army on foot and police - some with dogs - were supported by a helicopter as they separated marchers from a 100-strong nationalist protest in Ardoyne, where the hoarde of bottles, bricks and metal spikes were found.
The protesters whistled and shouted "scum" and tossed small objects at the orange parade as it passed.
In west Belfast, around 150 protesters turned out as Orangemen came down the Springfield Road. Once again, they whistled and shouted but there was no contact between the two sides.
Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan believes, however, that republicans are planning to bus in hundreds of youths into north Belfast for a riot when the parade returns to the Ardoyne this evening.
"This isn't black propaganda, this is a real concern about what some evil people up there are planning," he said.
Mr McQuillan was speaking after hundreds of bottles for making petrol-bombs, iron bars, bricks, and, "most sinister of all," a pile of star-shaped spiked metal objects hidden in shops in the area.
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Orangemen pass through the Ardoyne district amid heavy security
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Mr Gerry Kelly north Belfast MLA for Sinn Fein, said Catholics were being unfairly demonised. "He's [McQuillan] making a self-fulfilling prophecy. He's making an excuse in advance for the military operation that is swinging into action here," he said.
But Chief Insp Colin Taylkor said: "It appears that these items had been stashed there for an attack on the police, army and possibly the general public.
"There are things there that have been specifically made for nothing other than to injure members of the security forces. The discovery of the spiked metal implements is especially sinister."
"We are very concerned that there may be other stashes of weapons which we have not yet found.
At the parade rallies during today, Orange Order and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) members called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to expel Sinn Fein from the peace process.
"The process is broken and needs to be fixed. It is in crisis," the UUP's Mr Jeffrey Donaldson told one rally.
Politicians earlier appealed for calm amid fears that the trouble that has plagued the city interface areas might re-ignite.
Belfast's Sinn Féin Lord Mayor, Mr Alex Maskey, said he was concerned there could be widespread street violence. "I'm aware that there is concern and worry out in our community and that there is perhaps a dangerous cocktail of circumstances out there. I'm urging people to exercise political leadership by asking for calm and restraint. "
SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan urged people to remain calm over the weekend. "I would hope that people will be measured and mature in how they conduct themselves and interact with others this weekend. I don't believe that people have any excuse for trying to ratchet things up," he said.
Ulster Unionist MLA Mr Michael McGimpsey urged anti-Agreement unionists not to use today's parade to attack other unionists over their support for the Agreement.
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