Irish Republican News · October 19, 2004

Sectarian attacks in Belfast

A Catholic father-of-four came under brick and petrol bomb attack in their home on Sunday.

A brick was hurled through the window into the livingroom where a child was doing school homework.

A petrol bomb also shattered an outside pane of the double-glazed window and bounced into the garden, where it caught fire and caused scorch damage.

The street, off the Crumlin Road, is not considered a sectarian interface. But loyalist youths regularly use a lane at the end of the street as a shortcut between the Glenbryn and Glencairn areas

The McLaughlin faily said thay had a “very lucky escape”.

Meanwhile, a group of Protestant youths was attacked in east Belfast because they were mistaken for Catholics.

The group were attacked while sitting in a mini-bus on Saturday night.

While none of the teenagers suffered serious injuries they were said to be badly shaken.

Shortly before 10pm a teenage male approach-ed the youth group’s mini-bus and asked them where they were from.

A stone was then thrown at the vehicle, smashing one of the bus’s windows and injuring one of the youths inside the bus.

Several of the youth group’s members got off the bus and were then attacked by teenagers standing nearby.

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