After being attacked in another night of rioting in Belfast, police in Northern Ireland used water cannon for the first time in six years.
On Thursday night, crowds rioted on both sides of an interface in west Belfast that divides a loyalist and a nationalist town.
Petrol bombs, flares, and stones were used once more to target police officers, who have been dealing with the increasing disorder since March 29.
Later on Friday, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland will consult with political leaders.
After more than a week of nightly assaults on police in many parts of Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis is in Belfast for talks.
The recent unrest started with petrol bombs and intermittent attacks in a number of predominantly loyalist areas, but it quickly spread to the Belfast interface.
Officers have been deployed to quell protests on both sides of a so-called peace wall in the city's west for the past two nights.
At the intersections of Lanark Way (off the mostly loyalist Shankill Road) and the mostly nationalist Springfield Road, crowds harassed police and each other.
The rioting on Wednesday night, according to police, was unprecedented in Northern Ireland.
On Thursday evening, petrol bombs were thrown in the Springfield Road sector.
By Thursday morning, police had reported that a total of 55 officers had been injured in the previous week.
It is unknown how many people were injured in Thursday night's rioting, which saw police use water cannons to disperse rioters.
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, and Micheál Martin, the Irish Taoiseach, spoke on the phone and called for a reduction in tensions.
The United States has also called for calm, with the White House expressing concern about the violence.
On Friday, Chief Constable Simon Byrne of the Northern Ireland Police Service will be on the phone with Mr. Lewis and political leaders, according to reports.
He'll offer his take on the recent assaults on his officers.
'Brexit is not an excuse,' says one expert.
When the unrest first erupted last week in loyalist areas of Northern Ireland, it was related to a decision not to prosecute Sinn Féin leaders for violating Covid laws at a funeral last June, as well as tensions over the Irish Sea boundary imposed by the UK-EU Brexit agreement.
Over the Easter weekend, police operations targeting the South East Antrim UDA, a paramilitary organization active in organized crime, resulted in violence in Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey.
Mr. Lewis, who visited Belfast on Thursday, denied that the UK government had abandoned unionists as a result of the latest Brexit deal.
Theresa Villiers, a Conservative MP and former NI Secretary said on the BBC's Newsnight program that "rioting and lawlessness [has] disfigured Northern Ireland over decades."
She went on to say, "Brexit is not an excuse."
Simon Coveney, Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister, said that Dublin and Westminster would assist Stormont parties in resolving the unrest.
'Absolutely rash'
Justice Minister Naomi Long said in a tweet on Thursday night that it was "utterly irresponsible and depressing to see more violence at interface areas tonight."
"My heart goes out to those in the region who are experiencing terror and disruption."
Labour's shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to "urgently restore confidence that he has squandered in Northern Ireland" in a post on social media.
The Green Party has requested that Belfast City Council hold a special meeting "to resolve the extreme violence that has happened in our city in recent days."
