A murder investigation has been opened by the RUC in north Belfast following an attack in a taxi depot which led to the death of a man from a stab wound.
Mr Hugh Patrick McKee (35), of Twinbrook, west Belfast, was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital with a single stab wound to the chest.
The area around the depot on the Antrim Road, close to the nationalist New Lodge Road area, was sealed off for a time as detectives examined the scene.
Police said that Mr McKee was attacked by a number of men, and appealed for information about a black Audi Quattro car with the registration RIB 1292. The car had been parked in Duncairn Avenue, the street adjacent to the depot, before the attack. It was used by the attackers to flee the scene. Mr McKee was waiting in the offices of Orchard Taxi at about 2 a.m. when he was attacked. It is not clear how many attackers were involved. Mr McKee was taken to hospital by a taxi-driver and died a short time later.
Local sources suggested a criminal motive for the killing.
An SDLP councillor for North Belfast, Mr Martin Morgan, said his thoughts and sympathies were with the family of the victim.
"It is clear from the information available that this was a premeditated and carefully planned attack. These people should be given up from whatever community they live in. Such acts must stop because they unnecessarily add to the great tragedies already suffered over 30 years," Mr Morgan said.
Meanwhile, police are investigating two petrol-bomb attacks in the Cannyreagh Road area of Donaghadee, Co Down. In one of them, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, a petrol-bomb was thrown at a house causing minor scorch damage.