The Police Ombudsman has concluded that PSNI officers acted with restraint when targeted with missiles - including petrol and paint bombs, fireworks and acid - during sectarian clashes in East Belfast on 15 August 2002.
Officers discharged six baton rounds during almost six hours of rioting in the Cluan Place/Clandeboye Drive area. A total of 16 police officers were injured.
The trouble began with an exchange of missiles between rival factions. The police and army were deployed in Cluan Place, and police moved into the Clandeboye Estate on foot. Officers mediated with local political representatives on both sides in an effort to calm the situation.
By 10.30pm the disorder in the Clandeboye area had escalated. Between six and eight civilian vehicles had been driven into the area and used to block off Clandeboye Drive. Police reported that bags of missiles were being brought in, and a barrage of missiles was being launched at Cluan Place. Missiles also continued to be thrown from Cluan Place into the Clandeboye Estate.
Within the next 45 minutes the situation deteriorated further. Police were forced to withdraw to Clandeboye Gardens under a hail of missiles and fireworks. Authority to use baton guns was requested and granted, and the police control room was urged to send additional police resources to the area.
Petrol bombs were thrown into Cluan Place and crowds tried to break through army lines.
At 11.10pm two police units moved into Clandeboye Drive and came under heavy and sustained attack by a crowd of around 200 to 300 people, some of whom threw missiles including bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and acid. The streetlights were smashed and the crowd used high-powered lamps to illuminate the police lines.
Officers at the scene again requested permission to use baton guns, and this was granted. Five batons rounds were discharged during a seven minute period - four at males armed with petrol bombs, and one at a male preparing to throw a large rock.
Three hit their targets - in the groin, stomach and pelvis areas - and one struck a wall behind the intended target. Another round was discharged at a male who disappeared in darkness once he had thrown the petrol bomb he had been carrying, and the officer was unsure whether it had struck its target.
A local councillor also reported that two blast bombs devices had been thrown into Strand Walk, but only one had exploded.
The situation gradually calmed down and at 11.52pm the authority to use baton rounds was rescinded. A few minutes later police moved into Strand Walk to investigate the unexploded blast bomb.
Sporadic attacks on police and between rival factions continued, however, and by 12.30am a large crowd was throwing missiles into Clandeboye Gardens, and fireworks were being thrown into Cluan Place.
At 1am police were confronted by a crowd of about 200 people at the junction between the Albertbridge and Castlereagh roads, and there were reports they may have had blast bombs.
Missiles, including petrol bombs, continued to be thrown from the Clandeboye estate into Cluan Place and at 1.45am the army discharged a baton round in Clandeboye Drive. A crowd of about 70 people also gathered in Langtree Court and were throwing missiles into the Clandeboye Estate.
The police and military then moved into Clandeboye Drive and cleared the area of rioters, but at 2.18am a crowd at Langtree Court and Paulette Avenue launched a barrage of about 50 fireworks into the Clandeboye area.
As a police unit moved to Langtree Court it came under heavy missile and petrol and paint bomb attack by a crowd of up to 300 people at Templemore Avenue/Albertbridge Road. Sulphuric acid was reported as having been thrown at officers.
Permission to use baton rounds was then granted and an officer discharged a single baton round at a male with a petrol bomb. The round was discharged from a porthole in the side of a Land Rover which had been struck by petrol bombs, one at the front and several to the rear. The round missed its target.
The situation remained volatile but by 2.40am permission to use baton rounds had been rescinded and most of the crowd on the Albertbridge Road had dispersed.
As with all baton rounds discharges, the discharge of the six baton rounds during the night's trouble was referred by the Chief Constable to the Police Ombudsman for investigation.
Evidence considered during the investigation included police command and control logs, radio transmissions, training records and firearms occurrence reports. Contact was also made with local politicians in a bid to identify any witnesses. None came forward, and no complaints were received by the Police Ombudsman's Office.
Police Ombudsman Mrs Nuala O'Loan said: "The available evidence would suggest that all six baton rounds were fired in circumstances where persons were attempting, through their actions, to kill or seriously injure police officers.
"The level of violent public disorder was intense and several police officers were injured during the rioting."
Mrs O'Loan noted that police had tried other alternatives before discharging baton rounds - including liasing with local representatives and other crowd control measures.
She said the police had acted with restraint in discharging six baton rounds given the ferocity of rioting.
A number of relatively minor issues were identified. These concerned the method of recording the number of baton rounds issued and returned by officers and the need to accurately record the wording and context of public warnings about baton gun use.
The Police Ombudsman also expressed concern that the baton gunner who discharged four of the six baton rounds had not received refresher baton gun training for 16 months prior to the incident. He was therefore not properly authorised to use the gun during this incident.
The Police Ombudsman made recommendations to the PSNI to address each of these issues.