Five people have been arrested by police investigating the savage beating of a 29-year-old Catholic man in Larne, Co Antrim.
The three men and two women were detained in the Larne area, said a PSNI spokesman.
Mr Gerard McRandle was returning home from his local pub last night when he was attacked and kicked repeatedly in the head by two men.
Police said they had not ruled out the possibility that the attack was sectarian.
Mr Danny O'Connor, the SDLP Assembly member for the area, branded the attack as "a savage act of barbarity".
"Anybody who kicks someone repeatedly about the head is trying to kill them or certainly at least cause them very serious damage," he said. "This was a very serious assault and I would call on the people to come forward and assist the police with their inquiries."
Meanwhile, a Catholic teenager struck by fragments from a pipe bomb in east Belfast today spoke of his relief at not being killed.
A 67-year-old man was also slightly injured in the attack in the Bryson Street area of the nationalist Short Strand.
Noel Brady, 14, needed hospital treatment after shrapnel from the device struck him while he was standing with a group of friends.
"I saw this thing like a firework coming over so I started to run and then I saw a big flash behind me and then something hit me on the backside.
"I just collapsed to the ground. People could have been dead," he added.
The attack was condemned by politicians from all sides.
Sinn Féin's Mr Joe O'Donnell said loyalist paramilitaries were to blame for the violence and urged them to bring it to an end.
Ulster Unionist Assembly member Sir Reg Empey said those engaged in the violence were putting people's lives at risk. "We have been working hard to try and resolve the difficulties that exist in the area and I would appeal to everyone to remain calm at this time," he added.
PA