Orange hall is damaged in attack

The hall has been targeted by arsonists in the past

Police are investigating the cause of an early morning fire at an Orange hall in north Belfast.

It was started outside the building on the Whitewell Road, and reported shortly before 0500 BST on Saturday.

The fire resulted in what a PSNI spokeswoman described as "minor damage" to the front door of the hall and some smoke damage to its interior.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds described the incident as "an attempt to burn down the Orange hall".

"Tyres were stacked against the building and were then lit in a clearly well prepared and organised effort to destroy the hall," he said.

"This is totally unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms."

Mr Dodds called upon anyone with influence in the local nationalist community to "make it clear that the people involved should be brought to justice".

One of the hall's trustees, Ron Martin, said it had been targeted several times before.

"They tried to burn the hall, getting in the back door about two months ago," he said.

"The hall was burned three times before that. It was destroyed about seven years ago.

"It is one of the only things left on the bottom of the Whitewell Road that is Protestant."