By Akshata Kapoor and Peter Murphy, AFP

A building is set alight in the Sandy Row area of Belfast city centre, Northern Ireland.

Police arrested 16 people during a second night of disorder in Northern Ireland sparked by a brutal Belfast stabbing, a senior minister said, condemning rioters for "racist thuggery".

The clashes with police late Wednesday came hours after a Sudanese man appeared in court charged with attempted murder over Monday night's shocking knife attack.

Video of the incident - which showed a man straddling another lying in the street, slashing him with a knife - went viral across social media platforms, triggering condemnation and anger that has spilled onto the streets of Northern Ireland.