Fighting around the Short Strand, a Catholic enclave in a predominantly Protestant sector of the city, has escalated in recent days. In the early hours of Saturday a gang of around 20 youths wielding iron bars is believed to have confronted the Australian students, believing them to be local Protestants. One of the Australians was dragged into an alleyway and beaten before his younger brother and their companion managed to rescue him. He suffered serious bruising and facial injuries, which later required plastic surgery.
Police suspect another man was attacked in the same area a short time earlier.
Officers, supported by armoured vans, then kept rival factions apart in the early hours of yesterday. David Ervine, a Northern Ireland assembly representative of the loyalist Progressive Unionist party, yesterday accused republicans of refusing to allow Protestants in the area to live in peace. These are attacks being orchestrated within the nationalist community. But Sinn Fein's representative, Joe O'Donnell, claimed that loyalists had initiated the clashes by hurling stones and bottles at local houses. Homes in the Short Strand came under attack.