Police Scotland officers sent to Ballymena after help plea

Police Scotland has agreed to send officers to Northern Ireland after two nights of disorder in Ballymena.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) asked for extra support under mutual aid arrangements following violent scenes in the County Antrim town.

The deployment will involve an undisclosed number of public order officers who are trained to police civil unrest.

A total of 32 PSNI officers have been injured since the protests over an alleged sexual assault began on Monday night.

The force’s assistant chief constable, Ryan Henderson, said they would be “surging a significant number of extra officers” into affected areas.

He described the violence as “racist thuggery targeted at ethnic minorities and police officers”.

Police Scotland previously sent 120 officers to Belfast last summer after a number of PSNI officers were injured during several nights of rioting and disorder in the wake of attacks on children in Southport, Merseyside.

The force confirmed the deployment, but declined to comment further.

Mutual aid agreements are uncommon and are generally “incident based,” according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

ACC Henderson said: “As part of my forward planning I have now activated the request for mutual aid resources from policing colleagues in Great Britain to ensure we have the necessary support to maintain public order and bring offenders to justice in the days to come.”