Loyalists were today accused of attempted murder after a Catholic man was stabbed at a sectarian interface in north Belfast.
The 43-year-old father-of-five is in a stable condition in hospital after being attacked near his home in Newington Street in the Limestone Road area.
Sinn Féin councillor Gerard Brophy accused the largest loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Defence Association - which is still banned under anti-terrorism legislation - of being behind an onslaught against nationalists.
He said the attack harked back to the days of the Shankill Butchers when a knife-wielding loyalist gang randomly murdered innocent Catholics.
"It was a well-orchestrated attempted murder once again by the UDA. The man was repeatedly stabbed about the face and head. This isn't the first time they have produced knives.
"This attack was reminiscent of the Shankill Butchers."
According to local residents, the man was assaulted after he confronted several men who were damaging a car outside his house in Newington Street.
He suffered cuts to his shoulder and hand after being beaten about the head and body. His attackers ran off after neighbours arrived at the scene.
Mr Brophy said the man had been lured into a well-planned trap. "He was bleeding so badly local people had to held his head together until the ambulance arrived."
He called on North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party to talk to the UDA to persuade it to call off its campaign.
"I hear Nigel Dodds describing the situation in North Belfast as tit-for-tat. It is not. It is an onslaught on nationalists by the UDA."
The police commander for north Belfast, Supt Roger Maxwell, said he intended to step up patrols in the Limestone Road area in response to the violence, but he rejected calls for a permanent security presence.
"The level of police in the Limestone Road and throughout north Belfast is constantly under review. There is a static presence of police and army for a substantial part of each day," he said.
Mr Maxwell called on politicians and community leaders to work together to stamp out sectarian clashes.
"The problems of the Limestone Road are community issues and we would call upon elected representatives and other people of influence in the area to sit down and thrash out these particularly difficult issues."
PA