Galliagh disorder: Mum speaks of daughter's facial injury

Police said a male driver was dragged from his car before it was set on fire.

A mother has said her daughter now has a "hole in her face" after debris from a car fire struck her in Londonderry.

Molly was walking near the burning car on her way to a friends house in the Galliagh area when she was injured.

The trouble in the area followed the removal of wood and other materials from a bonfire site earlier on Monday.

The 19-year-old's mother said those responsible for Molly's injury need to think of the serious consequences that their actions have had on their family.

"Her jaw is broken in two places and she had to get two plates put in her face," Patricia - who, like her daughter, only wanted her first name used - told BBC News NI.

'She needs plastic surgery'

"She has a hole in her face on her cheek and she needs plastic surgery - they couldn't even operate today because there was so much swelling around her face."

The police have said Molly was injured around the same time a man was dragged out of his car, beaten and the vehicle set alight in Galliagh.

They said buses and a delivery driver's van also came under attack and attempts were made to burn a van during the disorder.

Patricia said her daughter described the car being on fire and making a sort of hissing noise before she was struck by the debris.

"Whatever it was, it must have hit her at some force because her jaw was broken in two places," she said.

Patricia said Molly spent the night in hospital and remains there awaiting further surgery.

Speaking directly to those who caused her injury, Patricia appealed for calm and said that she does not want to to see any other family go through what they are going through.

Contractors removed the material from the site of the bonfire on Monday morning

For several months, young people in Galliagh have been collecting material for a bonfire on 15 August - a date when bonfires have been lit for a number of years in nationalist areas of Derry.

On Monday, Stormont's Department for Communities (DfC) said it had cleared the site due to "public safety concerns".

The material was being gathered close to homes on a large green space owned by the department.

Bins, tyres and pallets were dragged onto roads in Galliagh and set on fire throughout the evening, police said.

Police said the man was dragged from his vehicle at about 22:30 BST on Monday.

He was struck on the head before his car was set on fire.

Earlier in the day, at about 16:30, a delivery driver's van was attacked by two masked men in Knockalla Park.

A community centre was damaged by petrol bombs

At about 17:50, a brick was thrown at a bus on the Upper Galliagh Road, damaging a window, while at 19:15 petrol bombs were thrown at a bus parked at a community centre in Bracken Park.

At about the same time, police said, there was an attempt by a group of young people to set fire to a van that was parked at a local playschool.

Bins, tyres and pallets were dragged onto roads in Galliagh and set on fire throughout the evening.

'Unacceptable scenes'

Derry's Mayor Patricia Logue also appealed for calm.

She said she was disappointed by the "unacceptable scenes" and appealed to those responsible "to bring it to an end now before they cause any more damage and upset to their community".

Sinn Féin councillor for Galliagh Sandra Duffy told BBC News NI that the same issues occurred in the area last year when an "unregulated fire" caused major safety concerns,

"An illegal fire can't be regulated, so once it's lit, the behaviour is - well, it's no man's land," she said. "So we had young people assaulted, we had a young person that nearly died from falling in the fire, we had another young person who nearly died from an overdose. We couldn't get ambulances into the area because of the crowds that were here.

"All of these things just added to the issues that were already there and residents here were very afraid if this fire went ahead this year we were going to be faced with the same issues and we could be possibly facing a loss of life."

In 2012 the removal of material at a bonfire site in Galliagh sparked three nights of riots.

The previous year Father Michael Canny, a senior priest in Derry, condemned bonfires across the city, including in the Galliagh area, as "a nuisance".

This month it was announced that a controversial bonfire in the city's Bogside on 15 August could be cancelled and replaced with a music event.