Riots & protests broke out in Northern Ireland, besides England, on Tuesday, 9 June ’26 (Wednesday AEST), after a Sudanese man was depicted on social media allegedly attempting to behead his victim in a brutal knife attack on Monday, 8 June ’26, evening at Belfast.
Police in Northern Ireland confirmed the charges of attempted murder against the alleged attacker. He was an asylum seeker, although terrorism as a motivation factor has been ruled out. The injured man, believed to be in his 40s, was reported to be in a serious condition while receiving treatment for the wounds he inflicted on his eyes, face, and back.
A gruesome video clip, moving viral on social media, depicted the alleged 30-year-old attacker pinning down the victim besides repeatedly stabbing him around the head. Several onlookers, some armed with makeshift weapons, voluntarily came forward to the victim’s aid by hitting as well as kicking the alleged attacker.
Monday evening’s attack in Belfast came amidst a city that had been synonymous with sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants. It sparked a snap, nationwide protest against immigration. Rioters set many fires across Belfast, including a bus and several cars. Political leaders called for calm. Amidst the torched houses, there were three homes, in addition to a Middle Eastern supermarket.
At the southern end of the UK, demonstrators marched in Southampton, England. This is where the recent sentencing of another South Asian migrant who killed a British university student with a knife had led to violent clashes with police only last week.
Although both the victim and the convicted killer were British in that instance, protestors stood outside a Southampton hotel that had housed asylum seekers. The protestors displayed signs reading, “Illegal migration is destroying our civilisation.”
This Belfast attack comes only a week after the sentencing of a Sikh man for murdering a white teenager, Henry Nowak. That murder stoked a debate over ‘2-tier policing’ and also whether officers were anti-white due to anti-racism training, which had probably gone too far.
