A north Belfast pensioner was being treated in hospital today after being attacked with a meat cleaver as he walked his dog last night.
The man (63) suffered head injuries when he was attacked by two men who got out of a car as he walked along Duncairn Gardens in north Belfast. His injuries are not believed to be life threatening.
In south Belfast six students escaped injury early today when a blast bomb, studded with nails, was thrown through the window of their house.
Six people - five of them students - who live in the house in Tates Avenue, south Belfast, claim the attack followed earlier threats from the loyalist Ulster Defence Association.
Three people were in the living room of the house when a brick shattered the window of a downstairs bedroom next door shortly after midnight and a blast bomb was thrown in.
The three escaped physical injury but needed treatment for shock. Today the residents of the house - both Catholics and Protestants - were planning to move out terrified of further attacks.
Overnight three police officers were also injured when sectarian rioting erupted on the streets of north Belfast last night.
Police and Army units were called to the flashpoint North Queen Street area amid reports that a suspected pipe bomb, which police later said was a large firework, had been thrown at Catholic homes.
Stones and other missiles rained down as crowds of more than 200 gathered.
There were also unconfirmed reports of baton rounds being fired by security forces battling to keep Protestants from the Tigers Bay district and their Catholic neighbours apart.
A police spokeswoman said police came under attack and a vehicle was set alight a few hundred yards away at Spamount Street in the Catholic New Lodge area as the trouble intensified. Order was later restored to the area, with police maintaining a presence.
additional reporting PA