Police in Belfast have been attacked with missiles and fireworks following a demonstration against the Brexit protocol in the north of the city.

The disorder on Wednesday night took place on Lanark Way in the loyalist Shankill Road area close to the peace wall.

A protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol had been planned in the area and a small number took part in a demonstration before police were attacked.

Later, fireworks and missiles were also thrown on the mainly nationalist Springfield Road side of the peaceline.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland described a “public order situation” in the Lanark Way area. “A number of missiles and fireworks have been thrown towards police,” they said.

Sinn Fein’s Pat Sheehan, a member of the Northern Ireland assembly, condemned those who organised the anti-protocol protest and said Unionist politicians should call for an end to the demonstrations.

“I condemn the trouble on the Springfield Road and on Lanark Way this evening,” he said.

“There is absolutely no place in our society for this needless violence and local residents deserve to live in peace.

“Tonight’s trouble is a direct consequence of the dangerous and irresponsible stunt organised by loyalists at the Lanark Way interface this evening.

“This so-called anti-Protocol protest was deliberately organised at this interface with the sole intention of heightening tensions and causing trouble.

“I am calling on political unionism to show some leadership and call for an immediate end to all protests at interface areas before someone is seriously injured and they should tone down the provocative and dishonest rhetoric.”

Serious disorder erupted in the Lanark Way in April, which was partly attributed to Loyalist anger at a trade border in the Irish Sea under the Protocol’s post-Brexit arrangements.

Earlier this week, a bus was burnt out in Newtownards in an attack politicians linked to loyalist opposition to the protocol.

The attack in the predominantly unionist area happened on the day set by the DUP earlier in the autumn to pull down the institutions at Stormont if major changes to the protocol had not been secured.

It was condemned by unionist leaders.

The DUP has not yet withdrawn ministers from the executive, insisting progress is being made in efforts to dismantle the contentious Irish Sea border.

Opposition to the arrangements that have created trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK was a factor behind rioting that flared in several loyalist areas across the region in April.