Arrested loyalist may have been on mission to `scare' leading UDA man

POLICE sources believe that a man who was arrested in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, following a chase in which a shot was fired was sent to the town to intimidate a former senior UDA commander.

A revolver was recovered following the incident at the junction of Killymoon Street and Drumm Road in Cookstown on Thursday night when police tried to stop a motorcyclist.

The motorcyclist, according to the RUC, refused to stop but as, he swerved to avoid the police he fell off his vehicle. Police then gave chase on foot and after firing, a warning shot arrested the man.

Police sources said that the, man was a "low level" activist whom they suspected was sent from Belfast by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), or by senior loyalists acting individually, to "scare" a former Belfast UDA commander who was expelled from the organisation.

The commander is understood to still be in dispute with loyalists in Belfast over matters not directly related to paramilitarism. He had been operating in Belfast but was forced out of the city and out of the organisation for breaking UDA ranks over maintaining discipline in support of the loyalist paramilitary ceasefire.

A man was being questioned at Gough RUC barracks in Armagh last night about the incident.

Meanwhile, following a so called punishment beating in Ballynahinch, Co Down, on Thursday night, a man suffered broken arms and legs and serious head injuries. The 27 year old man was attacked at Bawnhill, on the outskirts of the town. He is being treated at Belfast City Hospital.

In Derry around midnight on Thursday, seven masked men, one of them carrying a handgun and the others armed with baseball bats, assaulted a 20 year old man at a housing estate in the Creggan. He suffered bruises to his body and arms, and facial lacerations. After treatment he was released from hospital.

For the second time in two weeks an arson attack was carried out on a Catholic primary school St Patrick's in Loughgall Road, Armagh. Police said damage to the prefab building was not extensive.

Damages to the school caused by a fire early in the New Year is estimated to have cost more than £20,000.