A 14-year-old boy was shot in a paramilitary-style attack in Belfast early today.
Belfast's Lord Mayor, Mr Martin Morgan, angrily condemned those responsible as "child abusers".
The teenager was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to the left leg after being found dumped at the rear of Fianna House in North Queen Street.
Police have appealed for anyone with information about the shooting, believed to have been carried out by republican paramilitaries, to contact them.
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Mr Morgan said those responsible had reached "a new level of depravity, a new level of sickness".
He added: "The community has to reject these people. They are nothing better than child abusers."