THE husband of a pregnant woman who narrowly escaped injury in an attempted murder in Co Antrim has called on the British government to state that there is no loyalist ceasefire.
The Catholic woman, who is seven months pregnant, was recovering from shock yesterday after her home near Newtownabbey was riddled with bullets in a suspected murder attempt. The woman was in her home at Archvale Park, Carnmoney, with her two young children when masked gunmen opened fire.
Her children were in bed asleep and she was in the living room when six shots were fired through the front room window. A sledge hammer was used to break a panel in the side door of the house. Her husband was at work at the time.
The attack, which happened at around 10.15 p.m. on Sunday, has been described by the RUC as a "wanton sectarian shooting". A spokesman said the family had a "remarkable escape" and said it was a brutal and cowardly act".
Neighbours said the shooting happened as children were playing in the street, which is a cul de sac.
One woman, who did not want to be named, said: "This is a quiet, mixed area. People keep to themselves and nobody around here wants this. People are very afraid now. It wasn't dark.
"It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened. This girl is pregnant. Two lives could have been lost," she said.
After gunmen sped off, neighbours rushed to help the woman who was screaming for assistance. She was taken to hospital, where she was treated for shock.
An RUC spokesman said the vehicle used, a Volkswagen Goll, had been hijacked by masked men in the Rathcoole area on the outskirts of north Belfast a short time earlier and appealed for information about its whereabouts. Belfast Alliance Councillor Alderman Jim Rooney condemned the shooting, which he said was an attempt to murder a woman and her two children.
"The entire neighbourhood is shocked and horrified at the prospect of loyalist murder squads being back on the streets of Newtownabbey. I hope to see the murderous people who carried out this dastardly act brought to justice."