Alliance Party MLA for Larne, Danny Donnelly, has called the violent events at a Larne leisure centre on Wednesday night “a new low” and “a dark day”, reports Breaking News.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Donnelly said that “a very sinister element” had been “clearly intent” on targeting the leisure centre, where individuals who had left their homes in Ballymena the night before were believed to be sheltering.
He described the incident as a racist attack and noted that police were outnumbered by rioters who attempted to set the facility on fire. The centre, he said, suffered significant damage that will take time to repair, reports Breaking News.
“A crowd developed from about 6.30pm onwards, a large crowd, probably about a hundred people, but there was a very sinister element building up within it, a crowd of masked youths that were wandering around, picking up bricks, pulling out bins, and there was clearly an intent to attack the building,” Donnelly said, reports Breaking News.
“The building was busy at the time, the swimming club was going on, there was families, there was young children, people were doing fitness classes, people were coming and going as their normal business,” reports Breaking News.
“But there was clearly a building intent that was to attack the building. And unfortunately that prevailed. The building was pelted with bricks, the windows were smashed, police were attacked with bricks and then the building was set on fire,” reports Breaking News.
TheLiberal.ie won’t quit
Please support us with a small donation on PayPal!
“I’ve been down this morning and there’s extensive fire damage to the front of the building, it’s going to be out of action for quite a while, I imagine. This is our town leisure centre that is being gutted at the front it. It was absolutely disgusting. It was very frightening being in there last night when it was being attacked. There was a class going on when a brick came through the window. There was women on yoga mats doing an exercise class and a brick come through the window. Thankfully no one was injured but they very easily could have been, there was brick and glass everywhere,” reports Breaking News.
“The staff were fantastic. They were able to manage to get people out to safety. They managed to get people outside and away from the main thrust of the mob. And this was an attack by a racist mob. There’s no other description,” reports Breaking News.
Mr Donnelly said two families who had previously been evacuated from Ballymena were being accommodated at the leisure centre as a temporary refuge. Women and children had spent the night on yoga mats in the council facility.
Those families had been relocated by the time the attack took place.
“Thankfully everybody had been out and the staff at that time decided to retreat and I was with the staff and we left via the back door as the windows were coming in around us. This is something that is a dark day. This is a new low for us. This is not something that we would normally be used to. People do not go out and attack facilities such as this,” Donnelly said, reports Breaking News.
“There certainly was a real malign intent involved last night that I hadn’t seen before. So I’m very, very concerned about it. It was racist in nature. The facility was attacked because it housed immigrant families for a short while after their homes had been burned out. I’m clear that that is the intent and that is motivation,” reports Breaking News.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
