Three people have been arrested and pipe-bombs seized following a series of co-ordinated searches by the RUC, writes Clare Murphy in Belfast. A man and woman were detained after three devices ready for use and other components were discovered in a house in Carn Crescent, New Mossley, on the outskirts of north Belfast on Thursday night. A man was also arrested in a house in Blythe Street near Sandy Row in south Belfast.
There was speculation yesterday that the New Mossley find was linked to a UVF faction. However, Mr David Ervine of the PUP, the organisation's political wing, said he had been briefed locally that it did not belong to the group.
In Downpatrick, Co Down, three men were beaten in a paramilitary-style attack when a group of masked men, with sledgehammers and possibly a handgun, forced their way into a house. The incident was reported to the RUC at 12.40 a.m. yesterday. A 20-year-old man was beaten by up to six masked men in Twinbrook, west Belfast, on Thursday night. In Derry on Thursday night, nationalist and loyalist youths clashed and then attacked the police. A petrol-bomb was thrown at an RUC Land-Rover. Petrol-bombs were hurled into the Fountain estate and stones were thrown at cars near the Apprentice Boys Memorial in Society Street.