The RUC came under renewed attack in north Belfast tonight after 500 loyalists staged a demonstration on the Crumlin Road.
RUC officers came under in what officers described as "sustained attack" with missiles and fireworks being hurled at their lines.
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Rioters set a car on fire
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The trouble was centred on the junction of Cambrai Street and the Crumlin Road - the same spot from which police came under sustained gun attacks last night.
Earlier today RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan said the depth of bitterness and sectarianism in flashpoint north Belfast is as high as any time over the past 20 years.
With additional police and troops drafted in to keep rival loyalist and republican factions apart, Sir Ronnie also warned of the possibility of lives being lost unless serious street disturbances end.
"The violence is crazy," he said. "People must realise these situations can only have one outcome - the loss of life."
His warning followed last night's which left 33 of RUC officers injured.
Elements of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) have been blamed for orchestrating the trouble, heightening pressure on the British government to arrest suspected ringleaders and to declare their October l994 ceasefire over.
At the height of the violence, which erupted close to the republican Ardoyne district last night, gunmen shielding behind up to 600 rioters aimed 50 shots and two bursts of automatic fire at police lines.
Officers were also attacked with six blast bombs, 125 petrol bombs, fireworks and other missiles.
Sir Ronnie said: "I have no doubt that elements of the UDA and paramilitaries who have access to firearms and explosives were involved."
But he said: "It is not for me to decide whether that constitutes, at a strategic organisational level, an abandonment of their ceasefire."
This afternoon north Belfast Democratic Unionist MP Mr Nigel Dodds called for an end to the trouble which has erupted in a number of areas of his constituency where there are a number of sectarian interfaces.
He said: "The nightmare of another death draws closer every time their is such violence."
A protest today by loyalist residents against the school walk by the parents and children of the Holy Cross Primary School passed off without trouble.
But security chiefs fear more violence as sectarian tensions heighten.
Mr Dodds said the British government was responsible for the situation as it had "consistently ignored breaches of ceasefires and given concessions to the backers of violence."
Northern Security Minister Ms Jane Kennedy tonight added her voice to the calls for an immediate end to the loyalist school protest.
She condemned the threatening and abusive behaviour and said to subject primary school children to it was "outrageous".
At the same time, she spoke out against the loyalist violence in north Belfast last night.
The minister appealed to "all right-minded people" who had influence in their communities to engage in dialogue to find local solutions as an alternative to the violence.
Sinn Fein MP Mr Martin McGuinness also condemned the ongoing loyalist protest.
The Northern Assembly Education Minister criticised a Ulster Unionist Party delegation for going to Dublin today in a bid to increase pressure on the IRA to begin decommissioning its weapons.
He said they should have remained in Belfast to try to cool tensions on the streets.