BELFAST: Sunflower seeds and burnt tins of ghee spill out from the charred facade of an ethnic minority-owned grocery store in Belfast attacked during anti-immigrant riots this week in and around the Northern Irish capital Belfast.
On Thursday Mohammad, the manager of the scorched Sham Supermarket, sat on the nearby curb dragging on a cigarette — a habit he has resumed amid the stress of recent days 11 years after quitting smoking.
“It’s all burnt, there’s nothing left,” he said of the store that sold Syrian and other produce.
Mohammad, who declined to give his surname over safety fears, came to Belfast from Syria in 2017, recalling how local people were welcoming when he first arrived.
“It’s become really bad in the last two to three years,” he told AFP, his voice shaking and the lingering smell of burnt plastic filling the air.
