Police arrested a suspected loyalist paramilitary and recovered a rifle, believed to be an AK47 assault rifle, and a handgun during disturbances between nationalists and loyalists in Portadown last Saturday evening. The man was still being questioned by detectives last night.
The RUC detained the man after a confrontation in Craigwell Avenue in which he was challenged by a member of the public and pinned to the ground until police arrived. The RUC say they came under attack from the crowd when they tried to escort the man to a LandRover. Several officers were injured in the incident.
Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, from the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, said the courage and quick thinking of a number of local people had undoubtedly saved lives. "A number of shots were fired by the loyalist attacker before he was wrestled to the ground and disarmed. Those who confronted this would-be assassin demonstrated tremendous courage and their actions undoubtedly saved the lives of others," Mr Mac Cionnaith added. Local sources said the arrested man did not appear to have connections with the LVF, which has its stronghold in the area, or the UVF. They suspected loyalist dissidents were involved in the incident.
Earlier on Saturday, police arrested a nationalist on the Garvaghy Road following minor clashes between rival gangs. The man was part of a group of residents who traded insults with Orange Order supporters as they took down a Twelfth of July arch in the Park Road area.
Both incidents occurred in the wake of a warning by an Orange Order spokesman that the situation in the town was getting out of control.
Speaking for Portadown District lodge, Mr David Jones said patience among the Order's supporters was "wearing thin" over the Parades Commission's continued refusal to allow their march down the Garvaghy Road.
He expressed fears that "violent elements" would seek to exploit their protest if the commission did not soon make a decision in the Orangemen's favour. Meanwhile, several houses sustained scorch damages in two separate petrol bomb attacks in the early hours of Sunday morning.
In Newtownabbey on the outskirts of north Belfast, a couple and their four children escaped uninjured when a petrol bomb struck the rear of their house in Old Throne Park at 3 a.m., damaging a drain pipe. At around the same time, the rears of at least two houses were damaged at New Buildings, near Derry, after three petrol bombs were hurled at them. A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau, Mr Vincent McKenna, has claimed an increase in armed robberies was linked to the early release of paramilitary prisoners. According to Mr McKenna, armed robberies rose by 6 per cent in the 12 months following the signing of the Belfast Agreement. In a separate development, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams has called for plastic bullets to be universally banned. Commenting on the revised rules for the use of plastic bullets which came into effect yesterday, Mr Adams said: "There is only one decision which makes any sense, and should be taken in respect of plastic bullets - they should be banned."
The British government last week announced it would bring guidelines on the use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland in line with those in England and Wales, where they can be fired only to protect people.
According to the revised guidelines, the bullets, officially known as baton rounds, should be fired only when other methods of policing have failed and they are necessary to reduce the risk of loss of life or serious injury.
The road between Strabane, Co Tyrone, and Lifford, Co Donegal, was closed yesterday for several hours as army disposal experts examined a suspect vehicle abandoned there.