“They’ve hit homes with paint bombs, pipe bombs and petrol bombs.”

According to a BBC report, a large group of masked men have attacked a number of houses in east Belfast’s Short Strand area.  From the BBC report

Lord Mayor of Belfast Niall O Donnghaile, a Sinn Fein councillor for the area, was at the scene.

He told the BBC that 60-100 masked men fully dressed in camouflage gear have been attacking homes.

And from the same report

Police are at the scene and community and youth workers have been trying to defuse the situation.

“It’s a tense and dangerous situation,” Mr O Donnghaile said.

“They’ve hit homes with paint bombs, pipe bombs and petrol bombs.

“A pipe bomb-type device has gone off. There’s a number of Short Strand residents who are injured and a number of homes have been damaged.”

Police have confirmed that a large number of people had gathered in Bryson Street and that petrol bombs have been thrown.

Update  From a BBC report

The police have confirmed that two men were shot during trouble in east Belfast

Shots were fired by nationalist and loyalist crowds during the disturbances in the Short Strand area.

Trouble broke out between rioters at a sectarian interface on the lower Newtownards Road and Mountpottinger Road around 2100 BST on Monday.

The PSNI said some of the trouble was co-ordinated by loyalists.

And that

Police came under attack trying to restore order.

Laser pens were used to try and ‘blind’ police. One officer was treated for an eye injury in hospital.

Police said they are also investigating a report of an attempted hijacking of a bus.

The PSNI said between 400 to 500 people were involved in the disorder.

There are a couple of UTV reports.  Including this one

A number of people have reportedly been taken to hospital after masked men got involved in sectarian clashes in east Belfast.

Petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and other missiles were thrown close to the Short Stand interface on Monday night, after groups of men described as wearing balaclavas and camouflage gathered in the lower Newtownards Road area.

UTV understands a number of homes on both sides have been attacked, and that a PSNI landrover was set on fire.

There are unconfirmed reports that up to five shots have been fired from the direction of St Matthew’s Church, and that one man was being treated at a nearby ambulance station for bullet wounds to his ankle in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city

A bomb has been thrown at a police car in the Andersonstown Road area of west Belfast during an early morning security alert.

Officers were responding to reports of a suspicious vehicle in the early hours of Tuesday morning when an explosive device was thrown at the PSNI car.

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