Water cannon used in Ardoyne on Friday evening

DUP leader Peter Robinson has condemned violence in Belfast on Friday night.

The First Minister said: “Those who are using the cover of protest to attack the Police are massively damaging the cause they support.”

DUP MP Nigel Dodds is unconscious in hospital on Friday night after being hit by a missile.

Police say the missile was thrown by loyalists in the Woodvale area of north Belfast.

DUP councillor Brian Kingston confirmed the MP had been hit by a loyalist rioter.

Mr Dodds was seen lying on the ground after he was struck before paramedics rushed him by ambulance to hospital.

The DUP MP had been walking earlier in the day with Orangemen from north Belfast.

But after trouble broke out in north Belfast at the junction of Woodvale Road and Twaddell Avenue, Mr Dodss and party colleague Nelson McCausland were allowed through police lines to talk to senior PSNI officers in a bid to ease tensions.