A RUC officer was injured following an outbreak of violence in Lurgan, Co Armagh, yesterday morning. The incident happened after police and British army officers were called to Lurgan train station by Northern Ireland Railways staff to investigate a bomb hoax.
As they examined three gas cylinders, two of them wrapped in wire, which had been placed on the tracks, a crowd of up to 30 youths threw petrol bombs and bricks at them. One officer was injured and was treated in hospital. Two fire-fighters were injured yesterday as they tackled a fire at an Orange Hall near Kilmahamoghue Road near Ballycastle, Co Antrim. The hall was severely damaged by the fire, which was discovered shortly before 5 a.m. The cause of the blaze has not yet been established, but the Fire Service says it may have been started deliberately. Forensic experts have examined the scene.
Three people were injured in a so-called punishment beating in Co Antrim early yesterday. Three masked men burst into a first-floor flat at Portlee Walk in the Parkhall Estate shortly after midnight. Two men and one woman in the flat were beaten on the legs with sticks and batons, according to the RUC. One man suffered a broken ankle in the attack.
Meanwhile, a man in his 20s was shot in his left leg in Rathcoole in Belfast yesterday evening. He was being treated in hospital last night.