Bomb attack was 'attempted murder'

Police say the device had the potential to kill

Police have described a pipe bomb attack on a Catholic family in Larne, County Antrim, as attempted murder.

RUC superintendent Karen Kennedy said the attack at Laharna Avenue bore all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack.

These people are a cancer - they need to be rooted out of our society because it is only then that the decent people of Larne, both Protestant and Catholic, can sleep in their beds at night

Danny O'Connor

A mother and son were in the living room of their home when the bomb was thrown in through the window about 1115 GMT on Tuesday.

The device exploded but the two escaped uninjured.

A police spokesman said patrols had been increased in the town in recent weeks in the light of the recent upsurge in attacks.

Local SDLP assembly member Danny O'Connor said the people behind such attacks needed to be "taken off the streets".

"There is more police in the area - overt police sailing around in landrovers."

He said it was very easy for the attackers to set up look-out systems using mobile phones.

"What I am asking for is a more covert approach.

"These people are a cancer. They need to be rooted out of our society because it is only then that the decent people of Larne, both Protestant and Catholic, can sleep in their beds at night."

Alliance party leader Sean Neeson is to meet the RUC chief constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, to discuss recent violence in the town.

Mr Neeson said he was concerned about the "growing lawlessness" in the area.

No-one was hurt as the device exploded in the garden

Meanwhile, in Ballymena, County Antrim, a woman and her three children escaped injury in a pipe attack on their home.

She said she did not know why they had been attacked.

A device was thrown at the outer wall of the family's home at Circular Road but failed to explode.

Shootings

Meanwhile, four men were wounded in separate paramilitary-style attacks in Portadown, Belfast and Newtownabbey.

A man, believed to be in his 20s, was shot in both legs on the Garvaghy road in Portadown, County Armagh.

Two 18-year-old men were brought to hospital from the Jordanstown Road area of Newtownabbey outside Belfast with gunshot wounds to the legs.

Earlier on Tuesday, a man was shot in the leg at Prince Andrew Gardens in the Donegall road area of south Belfast.