Gun house attack 'third in month'

A number of shots were fired at the house shortly after midnight

A couple who escaped injury in a gun attack on their Ballymena home on Monday night say it is the third time they have been targeted in a month.

Up to three shots were fired through the living room window of the house in the Rossdale area just after midnight.

The woman said the attacks followed her approaching a number of people after they put up loyalist flags in the mixed housing development.

She said she asked them if they had permission from residents.

In the last month the couple's house and car have also been stoned. They are members of a local residents' association.

The woman said she was "disgusted" by the latest attack, which was captured on CCTV.

DUP councillor John Carson, who condemned the incident, said there had been tensions in the area over flags.

He said there had been a "deal done on flags last year" that they would be put up on 1 July and taken down on 31 August.

However, this year, he continued, someone had "taken it upon themselves" to put flags on every lamppost in the development.

Residents in the Rossdale area are very opposed to this spate of flag waving. There is a flag on virtually every lamppost in the development Declan O'Loan, SDLP

"We want to live at peace with our neighbours in a democratic society," said Councillor Carson.

"Just because I decide to fly a flag from my property, and that's my democratic right - I have no right to cross the street and tell a neighbour to get his out."

SDLP MLA Declan O'Loan condemned the attack as the work of "bully boys."

"Residents in the Rossdale area are very opposed to this spate of flag waving. There is a flag on virtually every lamppost in the development," he said.

"Strenuous efforts have been made by councillors and others to resolve the matter. Now a member of the residents' association has been deliberately targeted in a very serious, violent manner."

Police said that a motive for the attack had not yet been established.

It is understood a male wearing a hooded top and a balaclava was seen in a dark coloured Citroen Saxo car in the area at the time.