A 16-year-old boy from west Belfast was held for more than 24 hours before being shot in an apparent republican paramilitary "punishment" attack.
An RUC spokeswoman said the boy was found at 10.35 p.m. on Tuesday night in a garden in the Springhill Drive. He had been shot twice in each ankle and once in his hand. A second teenager found with him had been shot once in the left ankle.
The boy had been reported missing after he was abducted by four masked men from his home in New Barnsley Crescent on Monday afternoon. There was a subsequent report of a second abduction in the same area, although the youth was not reported missing.
The abductions are the second similar incident in less than a week. Mr Emmanuel Scott (18) and Mr Liam Clarke (19) from west Belfast were found shot a day after they were abducted from a petrol station in north Belfast by a gang of up to 15 men.
The two were then shot in the New Lodge area, just before midnight on Thursday. One was shot in the ankles and the other received wounds in the wrists and ankles. An SDLP representative for west Belfast, Mr Alex Attwood, yesterday condemned the attacks.