Shots were fired at two schoolboys standing outside a bookmaker's shop in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast last night in what local nationalist councillors have said was a sectarian attack carried out by loyalists. A gun was pointed at the boys by a man in a car before up to five shots were fired at the exterior of the shop.
The boys, aged 11, saw the car pull up outside the shop and believing the occupants to be acting suspiciously, warned the customers who barricaded the door to prevent the gunmen entering. The customers escaped through a rear exit. A Sinn Fein representative, Cllr Michael Conalon, last night blamed the UDA for the attack.
One of the boys, who did not wish to be named, said the gun was pointed at him, the trigger pulled, but the gun jammed.
A spokesman for the RUC appealed for information and sightings of the gold proton car used in the attack which was hijacked in Raleigh Street at 7.45 p.m. by a number of masked men.
"A short time later a number of shots were fired at the shops at the Crumlin Road/Brompton Park junction." The vehicle then sped down the Crumlin Road and was later located in Ainsworth Avenue. Last night police had not described the attack as sectarian.
A man (19) was taken to hospital last night in Belfast suffering from gunshot wounds to his feet and wrist. Just before 9 p.m. according to the RUC, the man was bundled into an alleyway by a number of men, at the bottom of Shaftesbury Avenue. He was beaten about the head and body before being shot twice.