Trouble erupted in the Rathcoole estate for the second night in a row The UVF were involved in a second night of rioting at the mainly loyalist Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey, a senior police officer has said.
A bus was hijacked and set on fire after its female driver was dragged out of her cab and punched. She was shocked but her injuries were not serious.
Children as young as nine were involved in the disturbances, a bus drivers union spokesman has claimed.
ACC Alistair Finlay said he was worried about UVF activity.
The rioting followed police searches carried out in the area as part of an ongoing serious crime branch investigation into a series of murders and other crimes by the UVF in north Belfast.
The UVF decommissed weapons in June 2009 but the Independent Monitoring Commission said in September that the loyalist paramilitary group sanctioned the murder, four months earlier, of Bobby Moffett on the Shankill Road because he was perceived to have flouted its authority.
The assistant chief constable said on Wednesday there had been “some worrying developments around this organisation’s management, discipline and commitment”.
“We have to see them step forward and take responsibility in playing their part in a peaceful Northern Ireland in the future,” he added.
Translink spokesman Billy Gilpin said the bus which was destroyed on Tuesday night had been recently bought for £200,000.
“We do want people to get home from work but we will not be taking any risks with our staff, our passengers or property,” he said.
“We are not prepared to run the gauntlet and drive through areas where tension is building up”
Michael Dornan Unite union
Discussions are taking place on Wednesday about the future of bus services in the area following this latest trouble.
Michael Dornan of the Unite union, which represents some bus drivers, said Translink withdrew bus services in the area at about 1850 BST on Tuesday.
However, the woman’s bus was not equipped with a radio and she did not know to avoid Rathcoole.
The woman was returning to an Ulsterbus depot when her vehicle was hijacked near the Cloughfern roundabout in the mainly loyalist Rathcoole estate, where six cars and a bus were burned out a night before.
Mr Dornan of Unite, which represents some bus drivers, said the decision to withdraw bus services was made as crowds gathered in the area for a second night.
“Most of those youths were aged between nine and 12, until the crowd started to swell,” he said.
“A brick can be just as lethal, regardless of the size of the youth.”
He added: “This civil unrest is doing nothing but depriving the community of public transport.
“We are not prepared to run the gauntlet and drive through areas where tension is building up.”
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