Loyalists have set fire to a bus and other vehicles amid orchestrated disturbances and racial violence in the Belfast area tonight.

A serious knife attack involving an immigrant in north Belfast last night has served as the trigger for arson attacks and road blockages.

A video emerged overnight of a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, who reportedly suffers psychiatric problems, using a kitchen knife to carry out a frenzied attack in Kinnaird Avenue in the Girdwood/New Lodge area, leaving a local man with serious injuries.

The attacker was disabled by the brave intervention of passers-by, including one man armed with a hurley stick. He is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, while the victim is in serious condition in hospital receiving treatment for eye, face and back wounds.

The shocking incident has been used as an excuse for right-wing violence by masked loyalists after people gathered at roundabouts and intersections in several areas.

Bins were set alight and pushed into a bus on the Newtownards Road in the east of the city, setting it alight.

Another group of masked men appeared at Cloughfern in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast, where two cars were hijacked and set alight.

A number of houses have been set alight in different areas of Belfast, including Dundonald, the Crumlin Road, and the Lendrick Street area of east Belfast, and at least one foreign-owned business, a Turkish Barbers in the County Antrim town of Ballyclare, has also been targeted.

Earlier, aound 200 people succeeded in blocking the road at a key interchange at York Street, causing severe tailbacks.

People also gathered at roundabouts in Antrim, Ballymena, and Bangor.

The disturbances were organised by social media networks of loyalists and far-right elements in Britain, where attempts were made to hold parallel protests.

Lasair Dhearg described the disturbances as “nothing but pure sectarianism” which had been “completely overshadowed by the intentions of mindless bigots who want to utilise it for their own self-interests”.

They added: “Those taking to the streets won’t care about our history but will stoke up tension and spread fear amongst the many migrants that have made themselves integral members of our communities.”

Sinn Féin’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly urged calm.

Ms O’Neill described the attack as “horrific” and praised those who “put their own safety at risk” in an effort to stop the vicious attack.

There was praise in particular for the west Belfast man who used a hurley stick to stop a barbaric attack.

Maitiu Mág Tighearnán took action after he and a friend came across the horrific attack.

Video footage shows the knife-wielding assailant stabbing the man before Maitiu arrives and uses the hurley stick to stop the assault.

Mr Mág Tighearnán said he and his friend, who only gave his name as Andre but who is trained in Brazilian jujitsu, jumped out of their car to rescue the bloodied victim.

“I’d taken my son to hurling practice earlier that evening and so I’d got out of the car, gone to the boot and grabbed his hurling stick,” he said.

“Instinct took over and I ran over and I smashed this guy over the head with the hurling stick. Right on the flat side, about three times. As hard as I could.

“Andre was a few seconds behind and he came running in and tried to subdue the attacker with an ankle-hold so he could free the victim.

“I hit this guy again, hard, but it didn’t seem to phase him. He did stumble back, though and dropped the knife. I think another man who’d been watching came in and kicked the knife away.”

Sinn Féin North Belfast MP John Finucane said he believed their intervention may have saved the life of the victim, a man who is aged in his 40s.

Mr Finucane said he wanted to thank them.

“They showed extraordinary courage and bravery to step in, to put themselves in danger to save, I think possibly, a man’s life because of their selfless acts, and I want, on behalf of everybody I’m sure, to thank them for that.”