A five-year-old boy is recovering in hospital in Belfast after a five hour operation to save the sight of his left eye after he was injured in a sectarian attack.
The Protestant boy was a passenger in a car with his father returning from an Orange Order parade on Saturday evening, when the vehicle was pelted with stones close to the nationalist Markets area of Belfast.
He was named as Curtis Martin by the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast where he is under sedation.
His mother, who has not been named, appealed to other parents to help find those responsible.
She said: "If they could just see the damage they have done to a lovely little boy.
"If anyone knows who did this, I hope they'll come forward, especially if they are parents themselves."
Chief Inspector Colin McLean said the incident was unprovoked and "something we thought we would have been moving away from."
He added: "The child was in a Rangers top and he was with his father who was in his band's uniform.
"They had been travelling back from the band parades that had been taking place that day.
"For that reason we believe that this was a sectarian incident," he said.