Damage From Rioting Tops £400K

It has been claimed this morning that the cost of replacing a bus taken from a female bus driver in Newtownabbey and burned by rioters will be as much as £200,000.

The woman was shaken but uninjured after she was dragged from her vehicle by a gang of masked men yesterday evening during a second night of rioting in Newtownabbey.

There were no passengers on her bus when it was hijacked near Cloughfern Corner and the driver did not know that bus services had been suspended at about 7pm because of the ongoing trouble and was probably returning the bus to the nearby depot at Glenville Road, also Newtownabbey.

Police then established a heavy presence in the area even though they came under fire from the mob with petrol bombs and other missiles.

While last night's trouble was significantly less intense than Monday night's children as young as nine were involved in this second night of loyalist rioting in and around Newtownabbey's Rathcoole estate.

While the first outbreak of violence was said to have caused damage estimated at £200,000 to repair, with six cars and a bus burnt out as 200 youths were marshalled by the loyalist paramilitaries, it has been been claimed last night cost just as much.

A spokesman for Translink told BBC Radio Ulster this morning that the almost 'brand new' bus destroyed last night would itself cost £200,000 to replace.

Billy Gilpin said the bus which was destroyed on Tuesday night had been recently bought for £200,000, which brings the bill to at least £400,000 for the two nights of UVF orchestrated violence.

This does not take into account the cost of operating the PSNI helicopter or the additional cost of bringing in around 150 police officers to quell four hours of rioting on Monday evening and into early Tuesday. Overall costs are therefore likely to top a half million pounds.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that firemen saw a gunman in loyalist Rathcoole during the initial trouble on Monday night.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland was commenting after a second night of violence in the area and said the rioting on Monday night was "stimulated" by the UVF following a series of police searches in the area.

They were part of an ongoing serious crime branch investigation into a series of murders and other crimes by the UVF in north Belfast.

"There were gunmen, let's have no illusions about this, there were gunmen who were out on the first night, who were seen by the Fire and Rescue Service and members of the public," he told the BBC today.

Local Alliance Newtownabbey Councillor Billy Webb has expressed his shock at a second night of trouble in Newtownabbey in which a bus was set on fire on Tuesday.

Cllr Billy Webb said: "I am shocked and appalled by this second night of violence. This destruction serves no purpose except to harm the local community. For a second night local people have had their lives disrupted by the actions of these thugs.

"I hope that the bus driver who sustained injuries during the hijacking will be able to make a swift recovery following her traumatic ordeal.

"Only last week we were told at the extent of the budget cuts and now this mindless violence has cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds, money that could have been spent on providing public services to the vulnerable.

"I would urge anybody who has any information about either night of trouble to contact the police," he said.

(BMcC/GK)