The Police Service of Northern Ireland have released CCTV images of 14 people suspected of sectarian rioting in Belfast earlier this month.

The public in Northern Ireland has been asked to identify the individuals police claim were involved in the trouble at Ardoyne, in north Belfast, in the second week of July, during the height of the Ulster loyalist marching season.

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Little, who is heading a team of 20 officers solely dedicated to investigating the disorder, said : "Today I am asking the public to help us identify 14 individuals whom we'd like to talk to in connection with our investigation into the disorder that wreaked havoc on the local community in Ardoyne and put both local residents and police officers at risk of serious injury or even worse.
¬The PSNI has made 42 arrests in connection with the violence across Northern Ireland¬
"It is in everybody's interest – as well as in the interest of justice – that those responsible are charged and brought before the courts."

The PSNI has made 42 arrests in connection with the violence across Northern Ireland, of which 22 relate to the trouble that flared up in north and west Belfast.

"We are confident that many people in the community will know the identity of the 14 people whose images we are releasing. We would urge them in the strongest possible terms to bring that information forward," Little said.

"It is essential that those who were involved in the rioting do not continue to wreck communities and put people's lives at risk. It is vital that we all send out a message to those responsible that such behaviour will not be tolerated."

Republican dissidents were involved in orchestrating much of the violence which lasted for almost a week and cost tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage. The trouble was not just confined to republican areas of Greater Belfast.

During the week-long disorder, rioters in Lurgan, County Armagh, attempted to hijack the Dublin to Belfast railway line. In Derry's Bogside shots were fired at a police patrol.

The violence in the republican Ardoyne district was sparked by protests from Catholics against an Orange Order parade passing by their area on 12 July, the most sacred day of the Ulster loyalist marching season.