Three boys attacked by group in Derry among spate of alleged sectarian violence over the weekend
Police in the north currently believe the incidents to be connected.
On Saturday evening, it was reported that three boys were chased by a number of other youths, some of whom were reported to have shouted sectarian comments. The three males being chased sought refuge in a back garden, when allegedly their attackers jumped over a wall and used garden furniture to assault the boys.
The attack was one of several criminal incidents that occurred over the weekend, police reported. Damage to a bus, criminal damage, and disorder were among the crimes.
Yesterday afternoon, police responded to a report of an arranged fight in Waterside, Co Derry. A large number of people, most of whom were youths, arrived into the Irish street area and from around 5pm, bricks, bottles and fireworks were thrown by youths at their peers and police. A bus and another vehicle were damaged with bricks while travelling through the area. Two police vehicles were damaged.
In the evening, police received a report that a mural in The Fountain Estate had been damaged with paint bombs thrown at it.
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Later that same evening, a police vehicle carrying two police dogs was damaged by youths in the Irish Street area who threw objects at it. The dogs were uninjured and police arrested two males on suspicion of criminal damage, with one also arrested for an assault on the police.
Police Dog Kodi was one of two PDs travelling in a police vehicle was it was damaged.
Another vehicle was damaged travelling through The Fountain Estate area later that night.
The assault on the three boys, the attack on the bus and criminal damage caused to the mural are being treated as sectarian hate crimes. Enquiries remain ongoing.
Local representative Mark Durkan said said he was 'absolutely sickened' by footage he has seen circulating online of the 'savage' attack on the three young males.
'It's being reported that this was a sectarian attack and has the potential to light the fuse on a situation that has been simmering in the Waterside for some time,' Durkan said. 'It is important that peace prevails and no retaliation is sought, inevitably innocent people will get hurt or even worse.'
He criticised the attack on the bus, which had resulted in passengers injured by broken glass.
'This must have an incredibly frightening incident and this senseless violence must cease before anyone else is hurt,' he said.
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