The SDLP has today condemned an attack on ambulance staff in Belfast over the weekend.
On Saturday night two paramedics were injured when a brick was thrown through the windscreen of their ambulance at the junction of the Antrim Road and Brookvale Avenue at around midnight.
A female paramedic was hit on the jaw with a brick during the incident, while the male driver sustained an eye injury from the splintered glass.
Dr Joe Hendron, SDLP MLA and Northern Ireland Assembly Health Committee chairman, highlighted other such attacks on ambulance staff in recent times in both Belfast and Derry and said he was "appalled" by the latest incident.
Dr Hendron appealed to "public representatives and all those with influence in the community to work to ensure that ambulance staff can serve the community without fearing their own safety".
He urged political and community leaders to join forces with people in the health service, in repudiating and stopping attacks on ambulance crews.
With the health union UNISON warning the attacks could force ambulance staff to strike, Dr Hendron said he hoped they would not be put in the position of having to take industrial action.
"As someone who has been involved in primary care for 30 years, I have nothing but the utmost respect for the job that ambulance staff do," he said.
Dr Hendron also said he intended to raise the issue of the attacks at the next meeting of his Assembly committee on Wednesday.
The West Belfast MLA said he also planned to discuss them with the Health Minister Ms Bairbre de Brun.
Additional reporting by PA
