Disturbances have continued in the North with houses in both nationalist and loyalist areas being attacked in a night of violence. Two families, including one with a two-year-old boy, escaped injury when shots were fired at houses in north Belfast at around 4 a.m. yesterday.
Bullets struck an upstairs window of one home and the downstairs window and front door of another on the nationalist Cliftonpark Avenue. Police said they were still investigating a motive for the attack.
A local Sinn Fein councillor, Ms Kathy Stanton, said she was concerned about the recent escalation in violence. She said residents on Cliftonpark Avenue had witnessed a murder attempt.
"You can replace windows and material things, but you can't replace lives. Nobody takes a gun and shoots in through people's homes without trying to kill people. That's what was going to happen here." About 20 people attacked Protestant homes in the Woodvale Drive area of west Belfast. Early yesterday, the crowd singled out two houses without security grilles and threw bricks and stones.
Sinn Fein MLA Mr Gerry Kelly said he did not believe the attacks had been carried out by republicans. They had been carried out by loyalists to give them a pretext for attacking nationalists, he said.
In Ballymena, Co Antrim, a crowd rioted for more than an hour at the nationalist Fisherwick Gardens after a petrol bomb was thrown at a house in the area on Monday night. But police said the attack was definitely not sectarian.
A petrol bomb was thrown at RUC officers responding to the disturbance. The RUC said the riot continued until reinforcements were called.
In Larne, Co Antrim, four houses were damaged by gangs of masked men who got out of a car and smashed windows between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. yesterday. Police said they had not ruled out a sectarian motive for the attacks, which were aimed at Protestant homes.
A 15-year-old boy was injured when a brick was thrown through a window. A police vehicle investigating the incident was attacked by stone-throwers.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which is responsible for public sector housing, said it had received 36 requests for rehousing since the start of July.
The RUC are also investigating the motive for an arson attack on premises in Armagh city. Flammable liquid was poured through the letter box of the offices of the Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health, in Abbey Street, and set alight, causing minor scorch and smoke damage to the foyer.
The centre is used by more than 40 people from both sides of the community each day.
Meanwhile, in Belfast, a Sinn Fein councillor claimed loyalists were planning to kill him.
Mr Sean Hayes said three men sat in a parked car outside his home in the Markets area of central Belfast for more than two hours and only his failure to return there had foiled an attack.
"Given the recent activities of the loyalist death squads, this incident is particularly worrying," he said. "I have only recently moved into the house after repeated attacks on my previous address".