Three armed men have robbed an elderly Co Antrim couple and threatened to burn them alive in their house.
The gang, armed with a crowbar, broke into the home of the 84-year-old man and his 73-year-old sister by a downstairs window before confronting them in their kitchen. They tied the couple to chairs and systematically ransacked each room in their Dunmurry home looking for cash.
They spent an hour searching the house before leaving with what is thought to have been a modest sum of money.
The pair were treated in hospital for shock. The man has returned home to begin the clearing-up, while his sister was still receiving treatment last night.
The PSNI and political representatives have called for older people to be security conscious and for their neighbours to look out for any suspicious activity near the homes of vulnerable people.
SDLP Assembly member Patricia Lewsley called for panic buttons to be fitted in pensioners' homes.