Officers investigating Belfast kidnap attacked

Police were attacked by fireworks during searches for a man abducted in west Belfast last night.

Police were attacked by fireworks during searches for a man abducted in west Belfast last night.

Officers found a 19 year-old in the Bog Meadows area of the city who had been assaulted, suffering a broken leg.

They were called out after reports that masked men with wooden bats had taken a young man from a house in the Rockdale Street area.

The victim was bundled into a car and driven off towards Whiterock Road, police said. About 30 minutes later officers stopped a car in the Ballymurphy area.

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One man was arrested, the car seized and wooden bats and iron bars confiscated. A gun was then recovered from another vehicle on the nearby Ballymurphy Road.

A crowd gathered and began pelting officers with fireworks, a police spokeswoman said. Community representatives were brought in to try to restore order.

Elsewhere, another man was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg following an attack in west Belfast.