An eight-year-old girl suffered a shrapnel wound to the back and an 11-year-old girl was in shock after loyalists threw a blast-bomb at nationalists during continuing sectarian riots in north Belfast last night.
Earlier, a man was shot in what was described by the local MP, the DUP's Mr Nigel Dodds, as "a very serious escalation" of disturbances in the area. The man, who is in his 20s, had to undergo surgery in the city's Royal Victoria Hospital for what was believed to be a chest wound he sustained during clashes between rival factions in the Limestone/Hallidays Road area yesterday afternoon.
His condition was not known but is not believed to be life-threatening.
Mr Dodds blamed the Provisional IRA for the incident.
He called on the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr John Reid, to declare the organisation's ceasefire null and void, like that of the UDA.
Dr Reid described those who threw the blast-bomb which injured the two girls as "quite simply, scum".
"They bring disgrace on all of us in Northern Ireland", he said. "They need to be captured, prosecuted and locked up where their poisonous sectarian hatred can do no damage."
Mr Dodds said it was "nauseating" to hear IRA/Sinn FΘin leaders saying that they were working flat-out to achieve decommissioning when "at the very same time gunmen were on the streets of north Belfast using illegal weapons against loyalists".
At the time of the shooting, security forces in full riot gear had just been called to the area to keep apart a loyalist crowd of around 50 people and a 100-strong group of nationalists.
The mobs had been pelting each other with missiles.
Also last night, shots were fired through the livingroom window of a house at Glenside Parade in the Ballysillan area. No one was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly before midnight.
On Saturday, several people, including three police officers, were injured when trouble flared between rival factions on the nearby Ardoyne Road, the area at the centre of the Holy Cross school dispute. Meanwhile, two men escaped injury after being shot at by a hooded gunman in Downpatrick, Co Down, on Saturday morning.