New rioting outside Belfast school

Between 30 and 50 people were involved in the riot, police said

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Three people were shot and wounded and several police officers were injured in rioting Wednesday between Protestants and Roman Catholics outside a Catholic girls' school in Belfast, Northern Ireland, police and witnesses said.

Only a few dozen people appeared to be involved in the disturbance at first, but the crowd grew to several hundred. Holy Cross Primary School has been a flashpoint of violence in the past, and was the target of demonstrations last year by Protestant extremists, who shouted insults at schoolgirls and their parents as they went to and from school.

On Wednesday, stones, bricks, and bottles were hurled, and at the height of the violence three people were shot and wounded, police said. Their wounds were not life-threatening and they were treated at a hospital, police said.

Explosions were heard during the melee, but authorities could not say if they were caused by fireworks, improvised grenades or pipe bombs.

Some police officers were injured and an armored car was damaged when the mobs turned their anger on police, who moved in to separate the factions, a police source told CNN.

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Police eventually quelled the riot, but the situation remained tense late Wednesday, with people still on the streets.

Police said the "serious public disturbances" began as parents were collecting their children after school. Catholics said the rioting started when a Catholic mother was punched in the face during an attack by Protestants.

Protestants said the disturbances started when a memorial to a local Protestant man was destroyed. Protestants claim that a Protestant school bus was attacked by Catholics in the wake of the disturbances.

The Holy Cross school, in the Ardoyne area of Belfast, was the scene of violent clashes last year in a bitter dispute over the route used by its Catholic students to get to class.

The school was built in the Protestant neighborhood shortly before Northern Ireland's conflict ignited in 1969.

During the months of demonstrations last year, Protestant extremists blocked the road and shouted insults at the children and their parents.

The protests, which started violently but became largely peaceful, forced police to deploy hundreds of officers backed by soldiers to ensure the children's safety each day on their route to and from school.

The protesters, who said they were responding to Catholic attacks on their homes, called off their action in November after mediation by a number of figures including Northern Ireland minister David Trimble and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.

"I'm afraid we could be back to square one again. There has been aggravation on the road since Monday," said Aidan Troy, chairman of the school's governors. "Thankfully all the children have been safely removed from the school."

Troy said he was not sure whether the school would reopen Thursday.

In autumn's protests, dozens of young girls, some as young as 4, endured either a daily torrent of insults and obscenities or stony silence from Protestant adults as the girls walked to and from school.

The scenes provoked outrage around the world and the seemingly intractable dispute seemed to defy mediation efforts by politicians. South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu was even brought in to try to bring calm.

The loyalists said the protests were in reply to intimidation by Catholics who used the school as a cover to come into a Protestant area.