Family escapes bomb attack

Front window of home was shattered by bomb

A Protestant couple and their two children have escaped injury in a bomb attack on their home in a loyalist estate in west Belfast.

Zoe McQuaide, 22, her boyfriend, her five-year-old son and one-year-old baby were upstairs in their home on the Highfield estate at the time.

No-one was injured in the attack, but the front of the house and a number of cars parked in the street were damaged.

Detectives said on Wednesday that it was too early to establish a motive.

Two of Miss McQuaide's brothers left Northern Ireland earlier this year during the loyalist feud, but she said she did not think this had anything to do with the attack.

"At twenty past five this morning, I woke up to a bang, came down the stairs and found the window was smashed and the door was blown to bits," she said.

I think we have to look deeper into this and get away from the myth and the finger pointing that this was the UDA Frank McCoubrey UPRG

"Nails were all over the street.

"I don't know why - that's what I want to ask - who did it and why?

"I haven't done anything to anybody. An explanation would be nice, for my kids' sake. It's just shocking what they've done."

Frank McCoubrey, a member of the Ulster Political Research Group set up to advise the UDA politically, condemned the incident.

He said the loyalist group was not responsible for the attack.

"I think we have to look deeper into this and get away from the myth and the finger pointing that this was the UDA," he said.

"They have asked me to remind people that this area is part of the Shankill and they have made the point that during two loyalist feuds no such attack occurred in the area.

"The community and the organisation as a whole is totally mystified.

"People really are at a loss to explain why this happened."

Police have appealed for anyone with information to contact them.