Internationally educated nursing staff working in Belfast have faced "unimaginable" fear and distress when trying to get both to and from work, according to the Royal College of Nursing's (RCN) NI director.

“This fear and intimidation must stop," said Rita Devlin.

"Nursing staff from all nationalities and ethnic backgrounds are holding our health service together and we simply cannot do without them.”

She added that there have been incidents where nursing staff were stopped by masked men and asked to produce identification.

"We raised these issues with the PSNI and today they have provided reassurance that there will be increased police presence in key areas to support and protect healthcare staff."

Olivia Copeland
BBC News NI

A lead actress in the Mean Girls UK tour says she hasn't left her house following the disorder.

Vivian Panka, the first black actress to play the role of Regina George in the production, posted a video on TikTok saying that she's kept her blinds closed, adding that Belfast is "a scary place to be".

Producers have cancelled the show, which was due to run at the Grand Opera House from Tuesday evening until the 20 July, citing "uncertainty around the unrest" as the reason.

Patrick Fee
Reporting from Whiteabbey

The protest at Abbeyville Street in Whiteabbey has now dispersed.

About 170 people, many of them young people, attended the protest at its peak.

The mood was calm throughout - a far cry from the disorder seen on this street on Tuesday evening.

One residential building on the street was partly boarded up, its shattered windows and pieces of broken masonry evidence of violent disorder earlier in the week.

Another, still under construction, was daubed with graffiti to protect it from protestors, reading “already given to local families.”

Ita Dungan
Reporting from east Belfast

Around a hundred people have blocked the Newtownards Road.

The crowd gathered outside the Great Eastern Bar, most unmasked, with a mix of both men and women.

Police officers are speaking to those on the ground and the mood is fairly good natured at the moment.

OFCOM, who regulate all communications companies in the UK, have ordered social media platforms to clamp down on misinformation and hatred being spread online following disorder in Northern Ireland.

They say they are monitoring the situation closely and are contacting individual providers where they believe there are specific risks around the presence of illegal content relating to civil unrest.

The PSNI say they are aware of significant coordination from social media activity coming from inside and outside of Northern Ireland.

Image source, PA Media

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) says it regrets "that any member of our community feels there was a delay in the service they received" over the past 3 days.

Officers have been tasked with dealing with large scale public disorder in the past 72 hours protecting those in "fear" on top of responding to routine reports, a spokesperson said.

“In such a fast-paced, dynamic and evolving situation our finite police resources must be prioritised," it continued.

“We regret that any member of our community feels there was a delay in the service they received, however, we are dealing with a high number of calls.”

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

The five main parties met with the Northern Ireland secretary today for a meeting that has been in their calendars for a while.

There were bits of the conversations about those prearranged issues that those parties would much prefer to be talking about, but of course the uncomfortable conversation that we’re all being faced with is this issue of disorder.

I have to say that every party that came out to the microphones for pressers this afternoon to speak with us were adamant that the abuse of healthcare workers is appalling. The DUP gave an update on the condition of the victim Stephen Ogilvie.

The DUP wants to talk about closing borders when it comes to addressing issues of immigration. Other parties are hitting back.

The UK are hoping for an intensified crackdown on immigration but Gavin Robinson asked if it might just be that people are detained in London.

The SDLP said this was a pretty dangerous thread to start pulling at when you’re talking the potential reintroduction of hard borders. It was echoed by Michelle O’Neill and Jon Burrows, who said he didn’t like the type of language of 'closing the border.'

A woman whose address was posted online has said she is scared and no longer feels safe in Northern Ireland.

Ifrah Yusuf, who came here last year from Somalia, says she has been unable to go to work for the last two days because of the disorder.

"Maybe they will attack me for how I dress, how I look," she said.

She received a message on Wednesday night from the police to be careful after her address, and many others, were shared on social media.

"We are scared and not feeling safe in Northern Ireland," Yusuf said, adding that she loves Northern Ireland and hopes to continuing living here.

Translink is suspending bus and rail services in and around Belfast later this evening.

All Metro, Glider and Ulsterbus services due to operate out of the city ended at 17:30 BST, external, while Goldliner services across Northern Ireland will stop at 19:30.

The last rail services will leave Grand Central Station at 20:15.

The Enterprise service, which links Belfast and Dublin, is running on a reduced timetable.

Outside of Belfast, local bus services are expected to operate as normal, as will the X1, X2, X3, X4 and Ulsterbus 300 airport service.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

The Northern Ireland Secretary says "nothing justifies" the violence seen in the last 48 hours, regardless of concerns people may have about immigration.

Hilary Benn was speaking after holding talks with the five largest parties at Stormont on Thursday.

Unionist parties have called for the government to do more when it comes to protecting borders and removing illegal migrants from Northern Ireland.

Benn said the government is working to enhance its enforcement operations which are carried out at ports, airports, bus and rail routes.

"We are putting in funding to provide more of that activity, more arrests, more raids, more detentions," said Benn.

But he maintained that while people are entitled to their views, it does not justify the "appalling" scenes witnessed in parts of Northern Ireland this week.

Image source, PA Media

Stormont's health minister has condemned those behind the intimidation of some health and social care workers in recent days.

"How dare they threaten healthcare workers trying to get to work?," Mike Nesbitt said.

He added that he is also aware of vulnerable children in a health facility who have been moved a "considerable distance" because "those who were caring for them were concerned about their safety".

"I would appeal people to just remember that without our international colleagues, the health service in Northern Ireland would collapse - I repeat, it would collapse."

Catherine Cooke is a community worker in the loyalist Tullyally area of Londonderry where there was minor trouble on Wednesday night.

She says everybody, has a democratic right to protest as long as it is peaceful: "Whenever it becomes something else, that's when problems start, when people can't get home or care workers can't get to vulnerable adults."

"People are angry and what happened in Belfast on Monday night, I think it was a reaction from that. The people on the ground, I believe, are showing their frustration at the lack of action from those in power."

She says protesters need to stop destroying their communities and public property.

"It's part of moving forward, being multicultural. However I am not taking away from those horrific scenes we saw in Belfast on Monday night," she says.

"It shouldn't just be a loyalist issue, it should be everybody's concern, but I do believe that people are angry about immigration"

Social care services in Northern Ireland could not be delivered if international staff members are forced out through racist intimidation, the Northern Ireland Social Care Council has warned.

Its chief executive, Tracey Reid, says more than one fifth (22%) of the 50,000-strong social care workforce comes from outside the UK and Ireland.

"They are here because we needed them, our health and social care services depend upon them," she tells the BBC's Evening Extra programme.

She adds she's increasingly concerned about racist intimidation of staff, saying some social care workers were intimidated on the streets while others had to "barricade themselves into their own homes".

"Twenty two percent of a 50,000 workforce is a very significant number and if they were to leave tomorrow we could not deliver the services - our services in Northern Ireland are already under significant pressure."

Beverly Simpson is a nurse who has been living in Northern Ireland for more than 20 years.

She is also an anti-racism campaigner and an independent member of the local policing and community safety partnership in Londonderry.

“I am sick and tired of words… action is needed now,” she tells BBC News NI, adding those behind the violence have to be held to account.

“Let them rebuild the community, don’t let them sit in jail and enjoy my taxpayers money for destroying my community and targeting me,” she says.

Cormac Campbell
BBC News NI South-east reporter

Around halfway along Carleton Street in Portadown, County Armagh, are the offices of Arbour Housing.

It's a social housing association which owns and manages properties across Northern Ireland and was attacked on Wednesday night during disorder which lasted several hours.

Each of the building’s ground floor windows is now covered in chipboard.

A sign says the premises remains open.

Inside you can hear smashing sounds as workers begin the process of removing and replacing broken panes

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Image source, REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

The violence and disorder that has unfolded over the past two nights is "pure racism", First Minister Michelle O'Neill says.

She was speaking after her party met Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn at Stormont.

The Sinn Féin vice-president says it can't be overlooked that much of the unrest happened "in the main in loyalist communities", but she also criticises those "online bad actors for orchestrating hate and fear".

Asked about concerns raised by unionist parties about immigration and how to manage it via the Irish border, O'Neill accuses the DUP of "spewing rhetoric and reverting to type by talking about hard borders on the island of Ireland".

She also repeats her support for minority and ethnic communities, saying she met some healthcare workers today.

A 32-year-old woman has been charged with a hate crime following a protest outside a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers in Scotland.

Another two men were arrested near the Holiday Inn Express in Greenock on Wednesday evening and issued with fixed penalty notices for anti-social behaviour offences.

The woman is expected to appear at the Greenock Sheriff Court on Friday.

Police Scotland said two police vehicles were damaged as items were thrown at officers during the incidents.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Alliance deputy leader Eoin Tennyson says his party is urging the government to crack down on those who spread disinformation online, in light of the recent disorder.

He was speaking before his party entered a meeting with Secretary of State Hilary Benn.

Tennyson says there's been a "clear attempt" by some in the online sphere to "fan the flames of division" and there must be "consequences".

"People who couldn't find North Belfast on a map before this week, people who don't care about the victim and the community," he says.

"When they move onto their next target we'll be the ones left to pick up the pieces."

The chair of Northern Ireland’s Policing Board has welcomed assurances that those involved in violence over recent days will face “a robust criminal justice response”.

Brendan Mullan was speaking after the board – the body that holds the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to account – received an update from PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher on Thursday.

Boutcher told board members that the policing response will extend to those inciting violence online.

Image source, Getty Images

Mullan says the board also welcomed “that from today 200 mutual aid officers will provide the PSNI with additional resilience, capacity and visibility in the community”.

And he adds they also heard police do not currently have any information to suggest the violence has been orchestrated by paramilitaries.