Petrol bombs have been hurled at RUC lines as trouble intensified in Belfast after a day of Orange parades.
Officers in full riot gear are facing attacks from a crowd of 200 nationalist rioters. They used two water cannon in rotation to hose down the rioters and try to force them back up the road.
Five officers were injured, one seriously after being hit by a pick-axe, when nationalist protesters forced their way through a security force cordon ahead of the return of Orangemen along the Ligionel area.
The RUC opened fire with plastic bullets and nationalists reported a number of injuries as the RUC forced the protesters away from the returning Orangemen.
After the parade had gone past the violence continued, even trees were uprooted and hurled at police lines.
Meanwhile, police said it appeared the trouble in Shaftsbury Square was the result of a fall out between two bands in the Orange parade.
Dozens of onlookers, many of the women and children, who had lined the street to see the parade pass by were forced to flee what police said was "ferocious fighting" between the rival musicians.
PA