A resident of Coleshill housing estate described events there on Hallowe'en night and morning, Friday and Saturday last, as 'like the Wild West'.

The man, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said the rough week-end had started on Friday evening when street lights which had only been repaired that morning were broken.

"Between 6 and 7 o'clock, they started cutting down trees and blocked the road with a bonfire, right outside a house they had daubed last week with a neo Nazi sign.

"They had taken things from people's sheds and bins, mattresses and what have you and they had these things on fire in front of the garages.

"They had a few individual fires and they then started throwing fireworks, and they were taunting and roaring. This went on for a while, constantly."

The resident said the Police then arrived, and he paid tribute to officers for rescuing the trees and the other bonfire material.

"A lot of the residents down there had moved their cars but, after the Police left, they restarted the bonfires in front of the garages, but no one went to them, only these young people and their friends.'

It was at this stage that, according to the resident, there was a more sinister development, the throwing of petrol bombs at an unoccupied property that was targeted the previous week.

"They hit one of the windows with a petrol bomb.

"Luckily, it didn't break, but they did take the bins from the back garden and burned them. The owner had had his wooden fence burned a couple of weeks ago and he had replaced it with a steel gate.

"They broke down the steel gate, they put in the glass in his back door in trying to get into his house, and they went into his shed and wrecked his washing-machine."

The resident listed other damage done to this man's property ('he's a lovely man and he's very upset about the whole thing').

He described this and other incidents as, 'absolutely dreadful': "The Police, I would have to say, were very good.

"They insisted that the young people kept their bonfire in the field but they were determined not to. They had petrol bombs at the ready and I think the arrival of the Police prevented the rest of Coleshill being destroyed."

Asked what was needed to be done, the resident said it was up to the Housing Executive to bring in ASBOs (anti social behaviour orders) against those trouble makers who were tenants on the estate.

"The whole area was an eyesore on Saturday morning, with broken glass, big planks of wood and broken trees. One resident went out and he cleaned the whole area.

"It was like the Wild West. Once the Police had to go, the youths were trying to get them back so they could goad them and, without the Police there, they had a go at the residents."

Police at Enniskillen said they were disappointed with the behaviour of those involved in scenes of public disorder in the Coleshill area of Enniskillen on Friday night.

"During the disturbance, officers had to clear makeshift barricades that had been placed across the road and also dispersed groups of youths who had gathered in the area.

"Later at around 1:00 am on Saturday, two petrol bombs were thrown at a house at Coleshill Crescent, where a garden shed was also broken into.

"A 21 years old man from Enniskillen has been charged with the offences of disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest

"He is expected to appear at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday November 24. As is normal procedure the charges will be reviewed by the PPS."

The PSNI spokesman said that Police enquiries into the disorder were continuing.