Some of the worst trouble Belfast has seen for some time. That is according to a PSNI senior police officer following violence in the city on Friday night.

There have been 90 arrests so far this year since trouble started over the July 12th parades. The youngest is a 10-year-old.

The disorder first flared in the Royal Avenue area, a usually busy shopping district close to City Hall, as hundreds of loyalist demonstrators gathered to protest at the rally to mark the introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

The organisers of the Anti-Internment League parade had been given permission for the event from the Parades Commission adjudication body.

As loyalists attempted to block the route, riot police were attacked with a sustained barrage of bricks, bottles, fireworks, metal guttering ripped from shop fronts and pint glasses apparently raided from a nearby bar.

Unrest soon spread as the parade approached from north Belfast. There were reports of clashes involving loyalists and republicans, while a number of parked vehicles were set on fire nearby

Detective Superintendent Sean Wright says they will deal robustly with offenders.