Death is “only a petrol bomb away”, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland director has said, as he warned the Ballymena riots had been stoked by disinformation on social media.Patrick Corrigan decried the violence which has continued for a third day as “a racist pogrom” in which families have lost their homes and lives may soon be lost.

Petrol bombs have been thrown in a fifth night of violence in Northern Ireland - with the trouble now moving from Ballymena to Portadown. Fireworks and bottles were also hurled at police, who responded with water cannon in an effort to move people off West Street.