An extra 1,600 British troops are being drafted into Northern Ireland as sectarian tensions increase. A British army spokesman denied last night that the troops were being deployed as a result of rioting in north Belfast, in which 60 RUC officers have been injured.
However, he said the troops would be "involved in supporting the police wherever the operational situation demands".
The RUC said this morning that all was quiet in north Belfast following sporadic stoning earlier. The RUC arrested one man after reports of houses being stoned at the back of Mountainview Road in the Ardoyne area.
Security forces earlier uncovered a quantity of ammunition and bomb-making equipment after the search of a derelict house in south Belfast.
Army bomb experts are examining the material which was found after police responded to reports of suspicious activity in Pandora Street in the loyalist Donegal Road area.
Earlier yesterday Catholic schoolchildren were again prevented from taking their normal route to Holy Cross Girls' Primary School.
Only 80 of the 230 children enrolled in Holy Cross made it to school yesterday. A heavy police and army presence remained in the area last night and water cannons were put in place.
An RUC spokesman said a loyalist gunman emerged from a crowd and fired around six shots into the air in the Hopewell Crescent area of the lower Shankill, a stronghold of the UDA, yesterday evening. Police were also targeted by stone-throwing youths, he said. Rival crowds several hundred strong took to the streets.
The British Army said the extra troops were being brought to the North in preparation for the marching season next month. Orangemen are again expected to be prevented from marching the nationalist Garvaghy Road, in Portadown, in two weeks' time.
Troop levels will rise to 15,200 over the next week. The normal figure is around 13,600. Some of the 1,600 extra troops agreed by the General Officer Commanding, General Sir Alistair Irwin and the Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, arrived in the North in the last few days.