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.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Jon Burrows says masked men who chased a nurse with a different skin colour while she was on her way to work at the Ulster Hospital are the "scum of the earth".

Speaking after a meeting with the Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, Burrows says anyone involved in intimidating health care workers needs to be dealt with severely in court.

"If they think they are patriots by pursuing people caring for citizens then they are traitors."

The UUP leader also says any debate around immigration has to be done in a "respectful way".

"Closing the border is a cliche, I don't use language like 'alien invaders', I don't think it helps. There are smart ways of policing borders to keep people safe," he adds.

Image source, PA Media

Independent councillor for West Belfast Paul Doherty says "people have been traumatised" by the violent disorder, which takes him back "to the very dark days of the Troubles".

Doherty has been helping families find accommodation after some were forced from their homes on Tuesday night.

He says communities have been left despondent "with their heads down".

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Doherty asks people to imagine tucking their children into bed at night when a gang of men come into their house and set fire to it: "How would we feel in that moment?"

But he says the "pulling together" of people in Belfast has given him some hope, adding that he was "flooded with volunteers" yesterday.

Translink, Northern Ireland’s public transport operator, says it is suspending bus and rail services in and around Belfast later this evening.

No Metro, Glider or Ulsterbus services will operate out of Belfast after 17:30 BST, 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, will be running on a reduced timetable.

Earlier Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) said due to service alterations, some trains between Dublin and Belfast are cancelled, or are running on a reduced service between Dublin and Dundalk only.

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

Peter Coulter
BBC News NI

One the lead cast of the Mean Girls UK tour has says she is "scared" and hasn't left her home following disorder in Northern Ireland.

A number of the show's Belfast dates have been cancelled.

Vivian Panka, the first black actress to play the role of Regina George, posted on TikTok that she found it "very scary to be here right now, especially as a person of colour".

Image source, Paul Coltas

The Mean Girls musical was due to open at the Grand Opera House on Tuesday, but producers cancelled it and the rest of the Belfast run following the protests.

Panka told her TikTok followers that "people are actively targeting Black people" after she received angry messages from fans about the cancellations.

"I just really just wanna ask people to think before they send me a DM because I haven't left my house because I am scared to do so," she posted.

"It's not our choice to not come in. It's a safety issue. And it's not just for us, it's for the audience and it's for everyone who works at the theatre too."

The Grand Opera House apologised to ticketholders and said they would be contacted about refunds - read more here.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

The condition of the victim of the knife attack that sparked disorder in Northern Ireland is "improving", the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) says.

Gavin Robinson met the family of Stephen Ogilvie, who was seriously injured in the attack on Monday evening.

Robinson says Ogilvie's parents asked him to share an update on his condition. While he remains in an induced coma, his condition is improving and the family hopes he can be brought out of the coma within the next 24 to 48 hours.

He says, at that stage, assessments will be made about his sight and other injuries he suffered in the attack.

Image source, PA Media

The DUP leader says it is important that "misinformation" is challenged, adding that he hopes that the "tide is turning" when it comes to stopping further disorder.

"Last night you could see violence was waning and I hope the message from the Ogilvies and others that violence should stop is starting to sink in."

A 28-year-old man has been charged with failing to remove a disguise when requested, obstructing police and resisting police following disorder in Portadown on Wednesday.

A 24-year-old woman has been charged with disorderly behaviour and possession of an article with intent to do damage.

Both are due to appear at Lisburn Magistrates Court today.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Stormont's largest political parties are starting to do press conferences in parliament buildings this afternoon, after having met the Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn.

After their meeting, SDLP leader Claire Hanna was asked what in her view is behind some of the disorder.

She said there was a "toxic mix" of "online radicalisation and agitators rotting people's brains with hateful content", but the South Belfast and Mid Down MP also pointed to "structural problems" within communities including loyalist paramilitaries and said it was allowing messages to be "perpetuated at a local level... stoking people's worst fears".

She also called on the government and the executive to follow through on plans to counter radicalisation and promote cohesion.

One primary school in Belfast says almost half of pupils are off today. Many of these students, the principal says, are from newcomer families.

“It’s very difficult, there’s not a course in the world that can prepare you for this as a school leader," Phil Massey said.

"You try and react as best you can and try and take into account the needs of the children, staff and families."

185 children usually attend the school but just over 80 are in class today.

Massey says he's encouraging people to see school as a safe space, but says he has received a number of phone calls from staff and families about concerns and fears for their safety.

“The atmosphere in the area for those families is just one of complete uncertainty."

He said these families live legally in northern Ireland, with many working in the local hospitals.

“At the end of the day those children are as much part of our school family as the ones that are in today, and we really miss them not being in school. We really want them to be here.”

A woman whose daughter filmed the attack in north Belfast said it has left her too afraid to leave her house.

Karen described how her daughter Rachel is now is receiving death threats by people saying she should have done more to help.

"When you're a young 26-year-old girl – I don't know what else she was supposed to do and I for one am glad that she didn't intervene because it could've been a very different story for us," she told the Nolan Show.

She said Rachel was on her way home from work and was dropped off at her partner's house then received a call from her friend saying that something was going on outside.

When Rachel arrived she shouted "get off him" then went over but saw the knife so she stopped.

She phoned emergency services before filming the attack. Her mum said she was so upset at witnessing the incident, that she was taken to hospital and was sedated.

"Every time she closes here eyes she still sees exactly what went on and what happened."

Cormac Campbell
BBC News NI south-east reporter

On Portadown’s Thomas Street, boarded up windows and melted plastic and tarmac tell the story of the past two evenings.

Methodist minister Darrin Thompson said there has been tension in the town for some time.

“People feel that they're being pressed out of their own town at times. I don't necessarily fully agree with that, but at the same time, that's how people feel."

He said that newcomers, asylum seekers and migrants are here looking for a better life.

"We shouldn't be intimidating them and making them fear, the way they did here on Tuesday night."

A primary school in west Belfast says some of its children were "forcibly evicted from their homes" by "angry mobs" and families spent yesterday trying to find alternative accommodation.

"Following Tuesday night's disorder many classrooms on Wednesday had children missing," a letter from St Teresa's to parents, which was also posted on the school's social media, external, says.

It added that men, women and children who had committed no crimes had been "targeted because of the colour of their skin".

TUV councillor in Belfast, Ron McDowell, tells BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme that “tensions have been brewing” in communities across Belfast, including the Shankill where he lives, “for years”.

“We’ve had this conversation numerous times in the past. Nobody is addressing the social issues that these communities face as a result of immigration. Nobody is addressing the concerns of people,” he says.

DUP MP Carla Lockhart has condemned the violence, and says that “politics and the government have failed local communities”.

“People are angry and concerned for their safety. Therefore, they want the government to give answers around issues such as how many migrants, illegal migrants, have arrived in the UK via the Republic of Ireland land border. That, I believe, is one of the most important questions around all of this.”

Water cannon are used in Northern Ireland, but have never been deployed in the rest of the UK.

In 2015, then-Home Secretary Theresa May refused to allow their use in England and Wales, a year after three were bought by the Metropolitan Police.

May said "without safeguards" they had "the capacity to cause harm".

She said that while evidence suggested they were "unlikely to result in serious or life-threatening injuries", there were still "direct and indirect medical risks", including spinal fracture, concussion, eye injury and blunt trauma.

Image source, PA Media

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater - whose sister Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist in 2016 - has condemned the violence in Northern Ireland as "devastating", and has urged people not to "create chaos".

Speaking to PA news agency, she says it is not right to "vilify an entire community or an entire group of people who might not look like you do".

Leadbeater says she understands the "pain and trauma" of having a loved one murdered, but that she chose not to be "filled with anger and rage" after her sister's murder because the act was "his [the far-right extremist's] and his alone".

Cox - also a Labour MP - was killed in 2016 on her way to a constituency surgery

Leadbeater urges people to channel their anger into “doing something positive for your community”.

From 19:00 to 23:59 BST on Wednesday, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service received 82 emergency calls.

Crews were then sent to 33 incidents across Belfast, Mallusk, Glengormley and Portadown.

These included a vehicle fire, lorry fire, house fire, derelict building fire and industrial bin fire.

"We would like to thank our firefighters for their continued commitment and to our community for their ongoing support," the Fire Service said.

Image source, PA Media

The press conference has now ended, but before it did, Henderson warned water cannon would again be deployed tonight, alongside additional police and public order dogs.

"We will be robust in bringing order to our streets," he said.

He said police would also increase patrols around hospitals to reassure healthcare workers.

Henderson warned the stakes were "very high" for those involved, urging people fuelling violent rhetoric to stop.

"You're going to put young people at risk of becoming part of the criminal justice system," he said.

Asked about reports of "hit lists" online targeting particular addresses, Henderson warned police had been "actively patrolling" areas where they believed harm could occur due to information posted on the internet, and added they would be taking such material offline.