POLICE have removed Union flags from a volatile Belfast interface.
In a highly unusual move officers moved in to take down flags in the loyalist Mount area of east Belfast. Previously police said they had no powers to remove flags and emblems from public places.
In footage posted on the internet this week protesters remonstrate with police as they take down flags after being told they could not fly them near the nationalist Short Strand.
In July 2011 police controversially apologised for removing a Union flag from outside a Catholic church in Ballyclare, Co Antrim. Six officers were injured during disorder when loyalists hijacked a bus and used it to ram a police vehicle following the removal of the flag.
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