Bomb blast children 'lucky to be alive'

Niidmn Quigley points to where the device fell

One of two young Catholic girls injured by a loyalist blast bomb in north Belfast has said she was lucky not to have been more seriously hurt.

A senior police officer has said the two children injured by the bomb were lucky to be alive.

The attack left an eight-year-old girl with a shrapnel wound to her back and 11-year-old Neidiin Quigley with extensive shock.

RUC Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan said it was a "dreadful attack".

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."

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

John Reid
Northern Ireland Secretary

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.

Neidiin Quigley said the device hit her chest and landed in front of her.

The device exploded and injured her friend.

"There was a bang of it and I was really scared," she said.

"I didn't have anything against the people who did this, because there are good people there, but there are also bad people.

"The way they are treating us - they are just worthless and pathetic. I think nothing of them."

Clashes

Earlier, a Protestant man was wounded when shots were fired from the nationalist side of the clashes on the Limestone Road.

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

There were clashes on the Limestone Road

Large numbers of fireworks were also being used as missiles.

The bomb attack was condemned by the Northern Ireland Secretary, John Reid, who described as "quite simply, scum" the rioters who threw the device.

"They bring disgrace on all of us in Northern Ireland," he said.

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

Rival groups

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 26-year-old Protestant shooting victim underwent emergency surgery at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital for a chest wound.

Eddie McClean, a community worker in Halliday's Road, said republicans had been firing shots into the area for more than four months.

Alan McQuillan: "Dreadful attack"

"This is the first concrete evidence with this young fellow being shot - luckily there were no people shot before this," he said.

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

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.

Meanwhile, police have seized a box containing 743 bangers at the back of a house off the Limestone Road.

They also found a container of petrol, two five litre tins of paint, 12 petrol bombs and a large quantity of empty bottles during a search in Rabina Street on Monday. No arrests were made.