Iron bar attack 'was hate crime'

Detectives are treating as a hate crime an attack in east Belfast which left two men in hospital with head injuries.

Three men beat them up with an iron bar and a wooden bat in their house at Parklands on Wednesday evening. Their injuries are not life-threatening.

Alliance Party MLA Naomi Long said the whole community was disgusted.

"An assault of this severity is bad enough in itself, but the fact that there may be a racist motive to the attack is simply sickening," she said.