Five police officers have been injured when they were set upon by an 80-strong crowd on west Belfast's Falls Road in the early hours of yesterday.
The police were forced to draw their guns when the crowd, some of them having emerged from a nearby pub, closed in on them, kicking and beating the officers. One policeman was knocked unconscious and treated for facial injuries. A policewoman suffered an eye injury.
The police patrol had stopped a suspected drunk driver at about 3.15 a.m. when they were set upon. An Acting PSNI Chief Superintendent, Mr Russell Martin, said the attack had been a particularly vicious one.
"I believe it is just mindless thuggery. It is time for the community of west Belfast to stop and think about the kind of society they really want, a lawful peaceful one or one run by vicious thugs and villains. I would like to call upon all right-thinking people in the community to use their influence to bring these deplorable attacks to an end and to work with us to create a better society," he concluded.
An SDLP MLA for the area, Dr Joe Hendron, described the attack as an "absolute disgrace", stressing it was vital for people from all traditions to give their full support and co-operation to the new police service if they wanted to live in a safe society.
Sinn Féin has accused loyalist paramilitaries of "ethnic cleansing" after a number of Catholic homes in north Belfast were badly damaged in two separate attacks. A Sinn Féin councillor, Mr Gerard Brophy, blamed the Ulster Defence Association for both attacks on houses in Skegoneill Avenue.
One incident occurred at about 11.30 p.m. on Saturday when windows were smashed and a number of cars damaged. It is thought the same gang then returned shortly before 5 a.m. on Sunday smashing more windows. Mr Brophy said the attacks were part of a concerted campaign to drive Catholics out of the area.
Police in south Belfast have launched a murder inquiry following the discovery of a man's battered body near playing fields on the Malone Road yesterday morning. It is thought that the man, who was in his 30s, had suffered severe head injuries.
Describing the man's killing as "horrific", a police spokesman appealed for information about a red BMW car found in a nearby car park at Barnett's Park.
A number of men were injured in separate shooting incidents across the North over the weekend. In Jonesborough, Co Armagh, a 38-year-old man working in a chip van was approached by a masked man with a shotgun who fired two shots at him. The man sustained an injury to his thigh. In Holywood, Co Down, a man is seriously ill in hospital after being shot in the chest, stomach, elbows and knees in the West Green area of the town. In east Belfast, a man was shot in the groin in the Ravenscroft area.
