Three people, including two 15-year-old boys, were wounded during serious disturbances in east Belfast last night. The injuries occurred when shots were fired from the nationalist side of the sectarian interface into Cluan Place at about 7.45 p.m., according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Those shot - the two boys and a 39-year-old man - were Protestants, the police said. Their injuries are understood not to be life-threatening.
Mr David Ervine, of the Progressive Unionist Party, said that the three were wounded when a man scaled the so-called "peace wall" and fired shots from the nationalist side.
Mr Ervine said that he had seen two of the injured. One of the boys had suffered a wound to his leg while the 39-year-old man had been shot in the back and leg. He added that the area was "extremely tense".
The trouble flared for over six hours in the Short Strand, Newtownards Road and Albert Bridge Road area, starting at about 4 p.m. and finally becoming calm at about 10.30 p.m.
Petrol-bombs, blast-bombs, fireworks, bricks, bottles and stones were thrown during the rioting.
Many elderly people had to be evacuated from Cluan Place when houses there came under attack from the nationalist side of the "peace line". Families in the nationalist Short Strand were also forced to flee their homes.
A number of houses were set on fire and the British army had to create a special security cordon to allow fire-fighters to work at the scene.
A number of bursts of gunfire were heard during the evening.
Mr Alan McQuillan, Assistant Chief Constable of the PSNI, appealed to parents to take their children off the streets and urged local politicians and community leaders to do everything in their power to stop the "senseless violence".
Mr Joe O'Donnell, a local Sinn Féin councillor, said that many families in the Short Strand also had to be evacuated during the rioting. He told the BBC that nationalists came under an onslaught from loyalists during the evening.
The wounding of the two youths and the man was the most serious incident in a day of sectarian trouble in north and east Belfast which followed a weekend of sectarian violence.
At about 3.30 p.m. in the Whitewell Road area of north Belfast the British army and police came under attack as they tried to separate large gangs of up to 100 nationalists and loyalists.
The north Belfast trouble lasted for about 90 minutes. Two men were arrested at the scene.
