A woman was held in custody last night following the death of a 16-year-old youth in north Belfast yesterday morning.
Thomas McDonald from the predominantly Protestant White City estate sustained serious head injuries when his BMX bicycle was struck by a car at the top of Whitewell Road shortly before 11 a.m. He died later in hospital.
There were serious concerns about an escalation in loyalist violence in the area last night following the incident.
According to witnesses the car, a silver Ford Focus, pursued Mr McDonald from the Arthur Bridge to the front of the Whitewell Road near the interface between the White City and the nationalist Longlands estate. It appears a stone was thrown at the vehicle in which two women were travelling from the Longlands estate.
Mr McDonald was the eldest of a family of four. The incident took place just two miles from the Ardoyne area of Holy Cross Primary School.
Police confirmed they were investigating a sectarian motive for the incident. "We had initially a report of a road traffic accident, then we had an allegation that the vehicle had been driven deliberately at the young boy and had knocked him down," a spokesperson said.
The DUP's North Belfast MP, Mr Nigel Dodds, said the incident was more than a straightforward "hit-and-run" accident.
"I regard this death as murder," he said. "The lad was on his bike on the footpath and a car came across from the Longlands area on the footpath, knocked him down and sped off. The car was later found in the Longlands estate and a woman was arrested."
"In the context of the trouble we have seen in this area it is going to raise tensions even more and they are already at breaking point.
North Belfast United Unionist MLA Mr Fraser Agnew warned that further violence may follow the death.
"This is simply going to raise tensions in the community. At the moment people seem to be bewildered by it, but there will be anger when the bewilderment disappears," he said.
Sectarian violence between loyalists and nationalists in the area has been growing over the last three years. It escalated this summer after coffee-jar bombs were thrown from the nationalist side and pipe bombs from the loyalist area.
Security sources believe the IRA and the UDA were involved. A friend of Mr McDonald's family warned that loyalists would be intent on revenge.
Mr Samuel Blair insisted the incident, which followed a night of fierce rioting in the Whitewell area, had been sectarian. "It will be an eye for an eye, there is no point in telling lies about it.
"We have been under pressure for so long and the RUC have been turning their backs on us. It was only a matter of time before someone was killed."
Local SDLP councillor Mr Martin Morgan called on politicians to calm tensions in the area.
"Loyalist paramilitaries have never needed an excuse to go out and carry out attacks on the Catholic community in north Belfast. The dangerous language being used by certain politicians potentially offers the perfect excuse to go out on a murder campaign across the north of the city," he said.