Demonstrators pelted police with bricks, bottles and fireworks and set vehicles alight on Tuesday in a second night of anti-immigrant violence in the Northern Ireland town of Ballymena.

Police used water cannon and plastic baton rounds in an attempt to disperse a crowd of several hundred people in the town 25 miles (40 km) north of Belfast.

People taking part in a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town of Ballymena, Northern Ireland, Tuesday June 10, 2025. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)

Several houses were set on fire on the first night of disorder on Monday. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 15 officers were injured.

Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said officers were “actively working to identify those responsible for last night’s racially motivated disorder in Ballymena and bring them to justice.”

Riot police vans block a road at Clonavon Terrace, in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, as people take part in a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Niall Carson//PA via AP)

He said the violence should be “loudly condemned by all right thinking people.

“Any attempt to justify or explain it as something else is misplaced,” he said.