BALLYMENA, United Kingdom, June 12, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Hundreds gathered on the streets of Ballymena in Northern Ireland Wednesday, facing police armed with riot shields and water cannon on the third night of anti-immigrant demonstrations.

The crowds eventually dispersed without a repeat of the chaotic scenes from the previous two nights, when houses and businesses were torched and 32 police officers were injured.

The protests erupted in the northern town after the arrest of two teenagers accused of attempting to rape a young girl. The pair appeared Monday in court, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter.

Police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the teenagers, who remain in custody, but areas attacked on Monday and Tuesday included neighbourhoods where Romanian migrants live.

Ministers from every party in the province's power-sharing executive strongly condemned "the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days".

Residents had been "terrorised" and police injured, they said in Wednesday's joint statement, urging people to reject the "divisive" agenda being pushed by a "destructive" minority.

In response to what they termed "racist thuggery", police deployed riot officers with dogs and have asked forces in England and Wales for help quelling the unrest.

AFP journalists saw protestors throw fireworks, bricks and bottles, as well as toss two petrol bombs towards a line of armoured police cars. One road barrier was set alight, as crowds watched nearby.

On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the unrest in Ballymena "mindless violence".

Around 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of the town, masked men set a leisure centre in Larne on fire, local media reported. The centre was temporarily sheltering people from Ballymena who had been evacuated.

People living in Ballymena described "terrifying" scenes in which attackers had targeted "foreigners" over the previous days.

Some people fixed signs to their houses indicating they were Filipino residents, or hung up British flags.

- 'Racist thuggery' -

Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Fein vice-president, called the violence "abhorrent".

While acknowledging the protests as a "bit extreme", college student Lee Stewart described them as necessary "to defend our own people".

"We view it as the police aren't doing anything to stop what is going on to those poor wee girls," Stewart, 18, said.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said in a statement that its officers "came under sustained attack over a number of hours with multiple petrol bombs, heavy masonry, bricks and fireworks in their direction".

Some of the injured officers required hospital treatment.

Police Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson on Tuesday denounced the violence as "racist thuggery" and said it was "clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police".

Six people were arrested Tuesday during the second night of riots in Ballymena and the surrounding area.

The unrest comes as the topic of immigration fuels divisions across the United Kingdom and in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.

"There is nothing remotely British about wrapping oneself in the Union flag, attacking migrants, forcing people from their homes and scapegoating entire communities anywhere in the United Kingdom," said Former Northern Ireland minister Lord Caine.

But one Ballymena resident Allison McCurdy, 52, told AFP: "We're sending a message that Ballymena has had enough of foreigners, the town's been destroyed."