Shots fired at Traveller's funeral

Mourners at a funeral service for a 10-month-old baby girl were forced to dive for cover when a gunman fired two shots at them…

Mourners at a funeral service for a 10-month-old baby girl were forced to dive for cover when a gunman fired two shots at them outside Holy Family Church in the Ballymagroarty area of Derry on Tuesday night.

Two blasts from a shotgun were fired at the mourners in what the RUC said was part of an ongoing feud between two Travelling families. A local priest said it was latest incident in a "Travellers' war".

Detectives investigating the incident, who say they are treating it as attempted murder, arrested a man yesterday.

The attack occurred shortly after 7 p.m. when mourners were accompanying the remains of the baby, who had died in Scotland, into the church. A car containing four men pulled up outside the car-park. One of the men fired two rounds from a shotgun at the crowd. No one was injured but two cars were hit.

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After Requiem Mass yesterday the baby, Marie May Stokes, was buried amid a heavy police presence in Park Cemetery, Co Derry.

A detective said: "It was the latest in a series of incidents involving two Travelling families, but it was by far the worst. Someone could have been seriously injured or killed."

Father Paddy O'Kane, who was present during the gun attack, said there was "total panic" inside and outside the church. "There was total chaos. I went outside and came across a group of frightened men with machetes drawn, stunned at what had happened."