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Derry City & Strabane Area Chief Superintendent Commander Nigel Goddard has described violent scenes in the city on Easter Monday as “incredibly disheartening”.

Speaking after an Easter Parade in Creggan on Monday the local police chief said PSNI officers came under attack in the afternoon shortly after a parade began.

Masked youths threw a number of missiles at a Land Rover during the disturbances.

Young people also set fire to wheelie bins at the top of Eastway over the course of Monday afternoon, with road access blocked off for a time at the roundabout in Creggan."Shortly after the parade commenced, petrol bombs and other objects were thrown at one of our vehicles at the junction of Iniscarn Road and Linsfort Drive,” he said.

A Police vehicle is attacked with petrol bombs in the Creggan area on April 10, 2023 (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

“This was a senseless and reckless attack on our officers who were in attendance in the area in order to comply with our legal duties."As participants at the parade made their way out of the City Cemetery, they removed their paramilitary uniforms under the cover of umbrellas and burnt them."

Last week the organisers of one parade said they had planned for a peaceful and dignified commemoration and urged community representatives they had engaged with to call for police to stay away.

Police meanwhile had said they were aware of several parades including one in Creggan, which had not been notified to the Parades Commission. Chief Supt. Goddard said: “Organisers of this parade communicated in advance their desire to have a respectful and dignified event, however, that is not what we witnessed today.”

He added: “There can be no place for this type of criminal activity. It is not wanted nor welcomed by the vast majority of people across the city.”During the policing operation, he said, the PSNI ‘deployed evidence-gathering resources, and obtained footage which will now be reviewed as part of an investigation into potential offences under the Terrorism Act 2000’.

The Derry & Strabane police chief meanwhile has also appealed for calm amid concerns over heightened tensions and welcomed ‘support from those with influence to help prevent any further disorder in the city’.

'A senseless and reckless attack' : Derry police chief reacts to Easter Monday trouble in Creggan