Second night of riots in Belfast

Almost 50 RUC officers have been injured in two nights of rioting in Belfast

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- A woman was shot in the leg and 13 police officers injured during a second night of rioting in Belfast, the Royal Ulster Constabulary says.

Around 30 shots were fired at security forces trying to contain more than 300 rioters in the Crumlin Road area of the city.

Scores of petrol bombs, fireworks and other missiles were hurled at police lines and four vehicles were hijacked and set on fire, a police spokesman said.

Police replied for the second night running with plastic bullets.

Thirteen police officers were injured on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday -- to add to the 33 injured during rioting 24 hours earlier.

The trouble was centred on the junction of Cambrai Street and the Crumlin Road -- the same spot from which police came under sustained gun attacks on Wednesday night.

It followed a supposedly peaceful loyalist protest on the Crumlin Road which police were forced to close to traffic.

During more than three hours of mayhem on the Crumlin Road, militants hijacked and burned several vehicles.

At one point, police dived for cover as about 10 live rounds were fired at their positions, some ricocheting off the pavement.

On both nights, police said they were preventing Protestants from marching toward Catholic homes in the nearby Ardoyne district, the focal point for regular confrontations since June between the riot-hardened police force and both sides of the community.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the RUC's Chief Constable, told the Press Association: "The violence is crazy. People must realise these situations can only have one outcome -- the loss of life."

Flanagan said he believed the violence was being directed by members of the outlawed Protestant group, the Ulster Defense Association.

The UDA is supposed to be observing a cease-fire in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord.