Paint attacks 'may be sectarian'

Five homes were showered in paint

The police are investigating a possible sectarian motive for attacks on five homes in north Belfast.

Paint was thrown at the houses in the Ligoniel area just after 0230 BST.

Pensioners, one of whom is in her 80s, live in three of the homes. A boy of four and two-year-old girl were asleep in another of the houses.

Scorch marks were also found which police think may have been caused by a petrol bomb. Sinn Fein's Tierna Cunningham said people were terrified.

Meanwhile, residents in the Bogside area of Londonderry have claimed masked men threw bottles filled with paint at their homes.

The incident is said to have happened in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Police are investigating these incidents.