Roman Catholics hurled bricks, bottles and a gasoline bomb at police Saturday to protest a pro-British Protestant parade through this mainly Catholic city.
Police said three officers were injured, none seriously. After the disturbances, soldiers were deployed on the city’s streets for the first time in six months. Police reported two arrests.
The violence erupted after several hundred members of the Protestant Apprentice Boys marched through Londonderry’s main square, the Diamond, as part of commemorations of resistance to a besieging Catholic army in 1689.
Later Saturday, the Catholics threw gasoline bombs at police, set fire to two vehicles and tried to torch a department store.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of extra police kept Protestants and Catholics apart, bringing Christmas shopping to a virtual standstill. As the parade and bands left the city center, young Catholics poured into the street, hijacking two vehicles and setting one afire.
Much larger summer parades by Apprentice Boys are annual flash points between Catholic nationalists, seeking to end British rule, and Protestants.
