House damaged in pipe bomb blast

Police have said an explosion at the back of a house in Alliance Avenue in north Belfast was caused by a pipe bomb.

The explosion happened at about 1510 BST on Wednesday.

A woman who was in the house at the time suffered shock and grazes to her face after being showered with glass.

The back of the house was severely damaged.

Army bomb experts were called to the scene.

The explosion took place at the same time as parents from the nearby Holy Cross primary school were taking their children home.

The incident follows pipe bomb explosions during overnight violence in the area, which have been blamed on loyalists.

A police officer was injured during the trouble.

Two pipe bombs exploded at Halliday's Road shortly after 2300 BST on Tuesday.

Sinn Fein councillor Gerard Brophy said the devices were thrown from the loyalist Tiger's Bay area.

No-one was injured, but Mr Brophy said if the attacks continued someone was going to be killed.

"You have to remember these devices have gone into people's houses, have been thrown at people's cars while they were driving them, have been thrown at children," he said.

Disturbances

Earlier in the evening, nationalist and loyalist gangs clashed in another flashpoint area of the city.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary said about 200 people threw stones and missiles at each other and the police, at about 2045 BST in the Serpentine Road/Whitewell area.

One police officer was injured when he was hit with a brick during the disturbances.

On Monday night, three pipe bombs were thrown into the back yard of a Catholic home in the north of the city.

Two devices exploded while another was later made safe by the army after it failed to go off.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds said such attacks would only serve to heighten tensions and increase fears in the entire community.

Recent

The security forces also found eight pipe bombs on the Upper Hightown Road in the north of the city the same day.

Sectarian tensions in north Belfast and surrounding areas have been high since the summer.

In recent months both Catholic and Protestant homes have been attacked.

The tensions also spilled over into sporadic outbreaks of rioting and street clashes in recent weeks.