Police are investigating a criminal damage incident and a hate incident in north Belfast after masked youths attacked a car and an anti-immigration banner was re-erected nearby.

On Thursday evening, at approximately 9.50pm, a large group of youths wearing masks and armed with sticks, metal bars and bricks approached a vehicle on Shore Crescent and smashed its passenger door with a brick. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the damage is believed to have occurred during an altercation among a number of youths.

The attack took place close to Loughside Park on the Shore Road, where an AI-generated banner had been re-erected earlier that evening. The poster had been temporarily removed by its supporters, who described the move as tactical. The banner depicts a flock of sheep, with the words “our constituents” on one, walking through a gate towards masked men holding knives. Political party emblems for Sinn Féin, SDLP, Alliance and People Before Profit surround the image, along with the text “Open gates. Open borders. Open seasons. Your sheep, their feast.”

Police received a report about the banner on Friday and are treating its placement as a hate incident. Enquiries are ongoing, and the PSNI said each situation is assessed individually regarding removal under relevant legislation.

Belfast City Council had no role in taking down the banner initially. TUV councillor Ron McDowell had alleged the removal decision was procedurally flawed, but the council confirmed it was not involved. SDLP councillor Carl Whyte called the banner an unlawfully erected structure with a disgusting racist image and said it must be removed. He stated that failure to act would send a message that racist thugs can intimidate local communities.

A loyalist social media page, Shore Crescent Bonfire Community, claimed that moments after the banner was re-erected, the community was attacked by approximately 20 republicans or Islamic sympathisers. The PSNI did not confirm any link between the incidents.

The banner is part of a wider pattern of AI-generated anti-immigration displays in north Belfast and Newtownabbey. Two similar murals near the Cloughfern Roundabout have also been reported as hate incidents, including one that states “A new evil has arisen” in reference to the Islamic faith.