Police in the North fired shots today in a bid to quell a new outbreak of sectarian violence.
Just hours after 10 PSNI officers were injured during vicious rioting in east Belfast, a police vehicle was surrounded and attacked by a mob in Coleraine, Co Derry.
Two shots were fired after a number of men chased two youths into a house at Somerset Drive, a mixed area in Coleraine, said a PSNI spokeswoman.
One of those who lived in the property was dragged outside by the gang.
A crowd of up to 40 people then swarmed round a police vehicle and tried to pull an officer out. Bottles, beer cans and stones were hurled during the attack.
Ulster Unionist MLA Mr David McClarty was angered by the attack. He said: "Police who are trying to uphold law and order should be respected.
"For any crowd to attack officers for whatever reason just cannot be tolerated in any civilised society."
The trouble came as fierce fighting in east Belfast continued overnight. Houses in both nationalist and loyalist areas were said to have been damaged.
Windows on homes close to the staunchly Protestant Albertbridge Road area were smashed and paint bombs thrown, while Catholic homes in Clandeyboye Gardens were also targeted.
Earlier 10 police officers were wounded during rioting in the area. None of the injuries were serious. Nine officers were hurt when their Land Rover was hit by a blast bomb during trouble in the nationalist Short Strand enclave. Another was injured when he was hit by a brick, the PSNI said.
A police spokesman said later that 35 petrol bombs were recovered in the area of the blast bomb attack. The bombs were found in a follow-up operation at Fraser Pass on the Lower Newtownards Road area, he said.
Security forces flooded into the area when loyalist and nationalist gangs, each around 50-strong, started throwing missiles, including stones, bricks and ball bearings, at each other.
Police said the situation worsened when shots were fired by both sides and blast bombs were thrown by loyalists.
There were conflicting claims about how the trouble, the latest in a series of clashes in the area, started - but it is understood to have broken out while loyalist bunting was being erected beside a Catholic church.
Belfast Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers appealed for calm, saying he understood feelings were running high in the area.
He said: "I have absolutely no doubt there are those that are hell-bent on causing trouble and taking problems that we have seen in north Belfast and parts of south Belfast into the east of the city yet again."
PA