Dozens of police officers injured in Belfast rioting

LONDON (AP) — Police in Northern Ireland say some 24 officers were hurt in riots that were touched off when a Protestant brotherhood was blocked from marching past a Catholic district.

The police federation chair, Mark Lindsay, condemned the violence. Rioters attacked officers with bricks, bolts and projectiles.

Lindsay appealed for calm on Tuesday, the morning after police blocked the Orange Order parade from passing Ardoyne, a power base of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

At a Catholic counterdemonstration in Ardoyne, a motorist appeared to drive his car deliberately into the crowd, striking a 16-year-old girl and pinning her under a wheel. Police and civilians tipped it on its side to free her.

Police have blocked the annual Orange parade past Ardoyne since 2013, where Orangemen and supporters rioted for hours.