Authorities in Northern Ireland called for calm Saturday after a protest degenerated into violence a day earlier in a loyalist Belfast neighbourhood. Eight police officers were injured late Friday during attacks in Sandy Row, a southern district, by mostly young demonstrators who threw manhole covers, masonry and petrol bombs, a police statement said. Seven people were arrested from around 200 loyalist protesters, local media reported. "I am appealing to all those involved to stop this appalling behaviour immediately," Belfast District Commander Chief Superintendent Simon Walls said in a statement. "Local communities do not want to be dragged back to the past," he added in reference to three decades of sectarian unrest in the province. "They deserve to live in safe and peaceful areas, free from rioting, violence and wanton destruction of their communities," Walls said. Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis denounced the clashes as "completely unacceptable" and added: "Violence is never the answer. There is no place for it in society." There is rising discontent among unionist pro-British factions in Northern Ireland over arrangements aimed at preserving a fragile peace in the territory by preventing a hard border with EU member Ireland. That was a flashpoint in a bitter conflict that ended in 1998. The protocol removes the need for customs and regulations checks on the border with Ireland by shifting checkpoints for goods arriving from mainland Britain to Northern Irish ports. Unionists argue however that it strains ties with the rest of the UK by introducing trade barriers. Tension has also been stoked this week by a decision not to prosecute 24 Sinn Fein party members who attended the funeral in June of Irish Republican Army figure Bobby Storey in blatant violation of of Covid-19 guidelines. mpa/wai/har