Protestant schoolboys in north Belfast were ferried home by police Land Rovers this afternoon because of threats from nationalist crowds.
Pupils from the Boy’s Model Secondary School were stranded off the Crumlin Road on the wrong side of the nationalist crowd in Ardoyne after buses which normally take them home were withdrawn because of yesterday's violence.
Police bundled them into the back of armoured Land Rovers six at a time to ferry then past the crowds to their parents waiting on the edge of the loyalist area.
A first convey of four Land Rovers sped past the crowd without incident. A second of eight vehicles was forced to detour around side streets when the nationalist crowd spilled out and blocked the Crumlin Road.
A ferry service continued in a bid to get all the children safely home. The boys waited for more than an hour before eventually getting through.