Derry Violence Flares After Peaceful March

The SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan has said those responsible for serious trouble in the border city of Derry following the otherwise peaceful Apprentice Boys' march at the weekend are only disrupting the lives of the local people and offer no solution to the solving of contentious issues like parades.

He said: "Some of the people carrying out these disturbances are alarmingly young and are causing a huge amount of distress to the people of the Bogside.

"All last week, we saw the wanton destruction of the riots in England on our TV screens, unfortunately, for the people of the Bogside tonight all they have to do is look out their windows to see similar violence," he said.

"This is not the first time the police have had to deal with this type of disturbance here and, a lot of the time, the aim of those involved is to draw the police into an area," he said, but criticised the PSNI response as well.

" I would have hoped the police would have been better prepared to cope with that," he commented, but added, "This, however, does not deflect the real blame away from those responsible.

"A Royal Mail van and a Paolo's Pizza Van were burnt out - just what does that achieve?" he asked, rhetorically.

"All it does is disrupt the local people of Derry who rely on the jobs and services they provide.

He was speaking after three vehicles were hijacked and petrol bombs thrown at police in Londonderry after the city's annual Apprentice Boys' Parade.

The PSNI said that a mother and her daughter were dragged from their car near Creggan Street after violence broke out on Saturday.

They said a car was set alight in Fahan Street, a van was hijacked on Lecky Road and petrol bombs were thrown at the Memorial Hall.

In all, three men aged, 18, 19 and 24 have been charged over the disorder and are due to appear at Londonderry Magistrates Court on 9 September.

Also critical was the Deputy First Minister, Derry political, Martin McGuinness, who said the violence was "completely unacceptable".

The leading Sinn Fein figure said: "I challenge those who were behind this to come out and try and defend the incidents that occurred in our city.

"Let them stand over a mother and daughter being dragged from their car in Creggan and other people's livelihoods being destroyed with work vans being burnt."

The top local PSNI officer, Ch Supt Stephen Martin said in general the parade "went very well".

"It is the biggest parade in Northern Ireland annually, a lot of work is done by many groups, and I think all their hard work paid off with a good responsible parade on Saturday," he said.

(BMcC/GK)