22/07/2002

Two injured after spate of shootings in Belfast

Sectarian violence across Belfast over the weekend, which culminated in the murder of a Catholic man in north Belfast on Sunday night, has been described by police as "a catalogue of mayhem".

Police were faced with a deluge of shooting reports across north and west Belfast on Sunday night.

At around 10pm, a 19-year-old Protestant man, who has been named locally as Mark Blaney, was shot at Glenbryn Park – close to the scene of the Holy Cross protests earlier this year. DUP councillor for the area Nelson McCausland claimed the shots were fired by republican paramilitaries.

As police tried to cordon off the area and deliver first aid they were subjected to a prolonged attack by stonethrowers. Mr Blaney was later taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to his groin and his condition has been described as serious but stable.

Also around 10pm, two men walking on Salisbury Avenue escaped injury after they were fired on by men in a white Nissan car.

At 10.45pm, two men on a motorcycle approached the Henry Joy McCracken pub on the Oldpark Road. The passenger aimed a gun at a man standing outside the pub but both men made off when the gun apparently jammed. Sinn Fein councillor Eoin O'Broin claimed that the men escaped in the direction of the Shankill Road.

Then at 11.20pm shots were fired from a red Vauxhall car on Ligoniel Road, and a couple of minutes later a 29-year-old Catholic man was shot in the leg and groin in the nearby Rosapenna Court.

In Portadown, a family of five had a lucky escape when shots were fired at their Charles Street home at around 12.40am this morning. Two shots entered the bedroom of an 18-year-old girl as she slept inside.

Earlier today loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Red Hand Defenders, claimed responsibility for the attack.

(GMcG)

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