Joe Biden calls for peace as new violence erupts in Belfast, including the use of water cannons on rioters

Rioters have been blasted with water cannon in fresh unrest on the streets of west Belfast.

It comes after Northern Ireland Secretary Secretary Brandon Lewis admitted Brexit had created "real issues" in the country, but said violence was not the answer.

Mr Lewis travelled to the city following riots across Northern Ireland that have involved children as young as 12 and left 55 police officers injured.

Assistant Chief Constable Jonathan Roberts said there were "upwards of 600 people present" on Wednesday evening, some of them only 13 or 14 years old.

"Young people were being encouraged to commit criminal acts by adults, who stood by clapping and encouraging the violence," Mr Roberts said.

A bus was hijacked and set on fire and a press photographer assaulted by two masked men.

Mr Roberts said a "large volume of petrol bombs" had been used, some of which were thrown into the bus.

Joe Biden's White House has called for calm.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration was concerned by the violence, "and we join the British, Irish and Northern Irish leaders in their calls for calm".

Police have called it the worst unrest in years.

On Thursday night, trouble flared again when stones and fireworks were thrown at police by youths on the nationalist Springfield Road, close to the scene of Wednesday's riots.

Water cannon was deployed after warnings to disperse were ignored and people continued to throw missiles.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin and Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for calm after they spoke over the phone on Thursday about the unrest - and the latter has been called on by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to convene urgent cross-party talks.

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Earlier in the day, the Northern Ireland Executive's five parties united to condemn the "deplorable" riots.

It is "gravely concerned by the scenes we have all witnessed on our streets", it said in a statement, including those witnessed in west Belfast on Wednesday.

Wednesday night's violence, the most serious of several nights of unrest in loyalist communities, came amid tensions over the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the Brexit deal struck by the UK and the EU that has created what some see as a border in the Irish Sea.

There is also anger over the police announcing in March they will not prosecute anybody for attending former Sinn Fein leader Bobby Storey's funeral last June, which allegedly breached COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings in public.

However, Deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill says it is a "miracle" that no one has been killed after more than a week of riots.