Derry Shootings Probed

The police are investigating two separate shootings in Londonderry.

However, as two men were being taken to hospital after they were shot on Tuesday, one theory being examined is that the two incidents, though in different places, were linked.

One man was wounded three times in the legs after five masked men entered a house at Melmore Gardens in the Creggan area.

The second man, living in Creggan Heights, was also shot three times in his left leg after four masked men entered the house.

Police said the shootings could be linked and want to speak to anyone who was in the areas between 10pm and 11pm last night.

The BBC reported today that the local parish priest - from St Mary's in Creggan - had condemned the attacks.

Father Stephen McLaughlin said: "It doesn't matter what excuse or reason is put forward, this kind of activity is utterly futile."

Elsewhere in the North West, a man is being treated in hospital after being beaten by a gang of masked men brandishing baseball bats.

He was attacked in a house in the Cuilrath Street area of Coleraine at around 10pm last night.

He is understood to have suffered a broken leg and puncture wounds to both legs.

Detectives in Coleraine said they are working to establish a motive and are anxious to hear from anyone who noticed the attackers in the area prior to the beating or afterwards as they made off.

East Derry SDLP Assembly Member John Dallat said of the Coleraine attack: "The victim was visiting a friend and was set upon by seven or eight so-called men wearing masks and armed with sticks with nails in them.

"I believe this cowardly gang was looking for someone else who may have lived there in the past but that does not excuse their thuggery.

"I hope the victim makes a full recovery and I would like to assure him that no one believes he has been involved in any kind of crime or anti-social behaviour."

(BMcC/KMcA)