Girls' attackers branded 'scum'

Security forces intervened to try to keep rival factions apart

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid has described as "quite simply, scum" the rioters who threw a pipe bomb that injured two girls.

The attack, believed to have been carried out by loyalists, left an eight-year-old girl with a shrapnel wound to her back and an 11-year-old girl with extensive shock.

The bomb was thrown over the rooftops of a row of terraced houses at about 2030 BST on Sunday during continuing sectarian clashes in Limestone Road, north Belfast.

It hit one girl on the chest and fell to the ground where it exploded injuring the second girl.

They need to be captured, prosecuted and locked up where their poisonous sectarian hatred can do no damage

John Reid
Northern Ireland Secretary

Earlier, a Protestant man was wounded by a shot fired from the nationalist side of the clashes on Limestone Road.

Rioting resumed in Belfast's Limestone Road/Halliday's Road on Monday at around 0100 BST, with petrol bombs being thrown at police.

Large numbers of fireworks were also being used as missiles.

An angry Dr Reid condemned those responsible for Sunday's attack on the two girls, saying: "They bring disgrace on all of us in Northern Ireland.

"They need to be captured, prosecuted and locked up where their poisonous sectarian hatred can do no damage."

Assistant chief constable for Belfast Alan McQuillan said he believed loyalists carried out the attack which injured the girls.

Rival groups

He said: "We believe at this stage that it was some form of blast device and that it was thrown from the loyalist side towards the nationalists and that the children injured were on the nationalist side. But it is early days yet."

The children, who are in a stable condition in hospital, were hurt as rival groups continued to throw fireworks at each other at several spots in north Belfast.

The Protestant shooting victim, believed to be in his 20s, underwent emergency surgery at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital for a chest wound.

The nationalist SDLP assembly member for the area, Alban Maginness said somebody would be killed if the violence did not stop.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster on Monday he said: "What we saw last night was a very, very serious escalation of the violence.

Mr Maginness: Called for an end to the violence

"If politicians do not resolve the macro-political problems and end the political uncertainty and create stability within Northern Ireland, then these type of sectarian clashes are going to continue."

The Democratic Unionist Party MP for North Belfast, Nigel Dodds, accused the IRA of being behind the gun attack.

But Mr McQuillan said that while the firing point for the shooting had been found on the nationalist side, it was too early to say which organisation was responsible.

Police said about 100 republicans and 50 loyalists were involved in the trouble.

The security forces had to intervene to try to keep the rival factions apart.

Loyalists said a number of shots were fired at them, while nationalists claimed pipe bombs had been thrown at them.

Army bomb experts were also called in to examine three suspect devices.