Water cannons have been sent to Belfast in a bid to quell sectarian violence which has raged in parts of the city for the past five nights.
Acting Chief Constable Mr Colin Cramphorn said the vehicles could be on the streets as early as tomorrow night. But he insisted they were not a long-term solution to what the worst rioting of the last four years.
He said: "I have to stress that the water cannons are not a cure-all."
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Acting Chief Constable Mr Colin Cramphorn
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Briefing members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, he said six people had been shot and 28 of his officers injured during violent clashes between loyalist and republican mobs over the past week.
At least 40 live rounds were fired during the clashes between Protestants on the Lower Newtownards Road and Catholics in the Short Strand enclave, with police returning 61 baton rounds.
Although police chiefs have singled out the Ulster Volunteer Force as having orchestrated loyalist attacks, Mr Cramphorn was unable to confirm if the Provisional IRA was behind republican violence.
Replying to Ulster Unionist Party board member Mr Fred Cobain, he said this was down to police intelligence.
"In respect of nationalist paramilitaries there are three groups operating in the Short Strand area," Mr Cramphorn said.
"I cannot be sure which of these three groups were responsible for the shots fired and until I'm sure I'm not going to make any attribution."
Mr Cramphorn said his officers were being trained to use the two water cannons borrowed from colleagues in Belgium.
"If this is completed in time they will be deployed on the streets tomorrow night if needed," he explained.
Following negotiations involving the Treasury and the Northern Ireland Office, he also confirmed that a similar vehicle was being purchased specifically for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
At the briefing session which was dominated by the violence in East Belfast Mr Cramphorn also defended police operations against Unionist criticisms that not enough had been done to keep nationalists away from the peace line during rioting.
Although only two arrests have been made in connection with the disorder, the police chief claimed more people would be detained in the days to come.
There were further incidents of disorder in the area last night. Unconfirmed reports suggest there was gunfire in the Newtownards Road area and rival gangs pelted each other with stones in Ormeau.
Gunfire was reported in the area of Bryson Street where earlier yesterday it was alleged by loyalists that a republican mob attacked a teenage girl.
Six people escaped injury when single shots were fired into the living rooms of two houses in the Short Strand area.
Nationalists said the shots came from the loyalist side of the peace line. Police said they were investigating the incident as a case of attempted murder.
In west Belfast a police station came under intense petrol bomb attack during the night as street violence continued to spread across the city.
The fortified base in the nationalist Springfield Road was hit by an estimated 50 petrol bombs. Police said 30 people, all masked, appeared outside the station just before midnight, hurled their bombs in the space of two minutes and disappeared. Earlier in the evening the station was targeted by stone throwing youths.
Also in west Belfast the home of a 70-year-old woman was damaged in a pipe bomb attack in the Broadway area.
PA