Police have been attacked with fireworks, bottles and bricks as violence erupted for a third night in Northern Ireland. The worst of the disorder was in Ballymena, but unrest also spread to other towns on Wednesday evening.

By Conor Humphries BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -Violence erupted in different parts of Northern Ireland for the third successive night on Wednesday, with masked youths starting a fire in a leisure centre but unrest in the primary flashpoint of Ballymena was notably smaller in scale.

Hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set homes and cars on fire in the Northern Irish town of Ballymena on Tuesday in the second successive night of disorder that followed a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the town.