"Why do they attack us? What did we do?" asked Maria, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.

"I don't want to run, cause I did nothing bad," the 38-year-old sales assistant from Romania told AFP standing on her doorstep, her face taut with fear.

"When I go in the street people are looking at us very bad... they blame me... When they say go home, I say, home is here for me."

Riots erupted late on Monday in Ballymena, just northwest of Belfast, after two teenage boys were arrested and charged with the attempted rape of a young girl.

Although police have not confirmed their ethnicity, the fact that they asked for a Romanian interpreter in court has cast suspicion on the town's long-established Romanian and eastern European migrant community.

Police and politicians have hit back against what has been dubbed "racist thuggery" and denounced violence against a community which they said has always been very well integrated.

The communities who have been targeted "are not criminals. They contribute positively to society here," said Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher.

"They are valued members of society."

Hateful graffiti

Political commentator Alex Kane said there were wider forces at play.

"The original demonstration in Ballymena... was intended to demonstrate solidarity with and sympathy for a girl," said Kane, a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party.

He highlighted that there were also concerns about rising cases of femicide in the province.

"But as always in Northern Ireland, there is another agenda in play," he told AFP.

"Most of those involved in the rioting -- including large numbers of teenagers -- were from the working class loyalist community and, almost certainly, were acting with a nod of approval from key figures linked to loyalist paramilitarism" who want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

Four people have now been charged -- most of them teenage boys.

The violence in which 41 police officers were hurt and 15 people arrested, with homes and businesses torched, has left behind a scared community.

Police recounted how many had hidden in wardrobes and attics during the unrest and had to be rescued and helped to safety.

On Thursday, the area was mostly deserted as people hunkered down behind locked doors. Those who ventured out were mostly too scared to talk.

On the walls, hateful graffiti such as "Roma rapists" was a bitter reminder of the anger with which they were targeted.

“Sign of peace”

Tensions "have been bubbling under the surface, things have been going on and not been addressed," 59-year-old Paul, who did not want to give his surname, told AFP.

"People don't have much in Ballymena, so there is a certain perception that some people are coming in and taking resources."

In an unprecedented move, some households hung British, English or Northern Irish flags from their windows.

There were also portraits of King Charles III.

"We put (the flags) as a sign of peace... to say that we are not against them," said Blanka Harnagea, 38, originally from the Czech Republic.

It was a kind of "protection", said Harnagea, who arrived in Northern Ireland five years ago with her family.

Other houses displayed posters announcing "Locals live Here" or "Filipinos live here" and "British household".

"We are a bit worried they keep going on because some people said that they are not gonna stop until everybody who is not from Ireland has left," added the mother-of-five, who said she was considering packing up and leaving.

A report by the Northern Ireland assembly published in February revealed only 3.4 percent of the province's 1.9 million people were from an ethnic minority.

That is much lower than England or Wales where the figures reached some 18.3 percent of the population.

But some residents along Clonavon Road have already left, said Maria, describing how her husband had helped several families reach the airport. She thinks that she may have to go too.