The Loyalist Volunteer Force has admitted carrying out a gun attack on a Co Tyrone hotel on Saturday night in which a man was killed and three others injured. One of the injured was still in a critical condition with chest wounds in the intensive care unit of a Belfast hospital last night.
A 14-year-old boy, who suffered chest and arm injuries, was described as stable, and a third man had injuries to his leg, elbow and shoulder. The man who died was Mr Seamus Dillon (45), who worked as a doorman at the Glengannon Hotel in Dungannon. Hours before the attack the LVF had threatened to "widen its theatre of operations" in response to the killing by the INLA of its leader, Billy Wright, in the Maze prison on Saturday morning. At least two masked men are believed to have carried out the attack at the hotel, in which 18 shots were fired. Police said the gunmen drove into the car-park shortly before 11 p.m. in a red Vauxhall Nova. They opened fire when approached by security staff. The 14-year-old boy, who worked as a glass collector at the hotel, was in a function room where a disco, generally attended by young Catholics, was taking place. He was hit by a bullet which smashed through a window. His condition is not believed to be life-threatening. Seamus Dillon, from Stewarts town, was a former republican prisoner who had served a life sentence for a murder carried out in 1980. He was released in 1994. The Sinn Fein MP, Mr Martin McGuinness, visited the Dillon family home yesterday and said the murder was "indiscriminate" and "unjustifiable".
The car used in the attack was found burned out about two miles from the hotel. RUC assistant chief constable Mr Freddie Hall condemned the "reckless and unnecessary destruction of human life" and appealed for the whole community to be calm and vigilant.
Earlier on Saturday evening violence had erupted in a number of towns in the North. In Billy Wright's home town of Portadown, 12 vehicles, including a bus, were hijacked and set alight. Crowds of youths threw petrol bombs at the police. An imitation gun and 50 petrol bombs were later recovered in the Brownstone Road and Abercorn areas of the town.
The RUC was also attacked in Ballymena after the weekly loyalist protest outside the Catholic church in Harryville. Police said up to 50 people were involved and a bus was hijacked and set alight. None of the Mass-goers was injured in the attack and a number of arrests were made. Police responding to an emergency call were attacked by up to 30 people, and one plastic bullet was fired. No one was injured. Disturbances had been reported earlier in Dungannon.