Two men have been shot in separate gun attacks in Co Derry police said today.
Both suffered gun shot wounds to the legs in what appeared to be paramilitary-style punishment attacks carried out in republican areas.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said they believed the shootings were linked.
In the first attack, five masked men forced their way into a house in the city’s Melmore Gardens and shot a man living there three times in the legs.
Soon afterwards a man was shot three times in the left leg after four masked men entered a house in Creggan Heights and attacked him.
Detectives investigating the shootings said they believed they were linked but carried out by separate groups of gunmen.
Meanwhile, a third man is being treated in hospital after being beaten by a gang of masked men with baseball bats. He was attacked in a house in the Cuilrath Street area of Coleraine, Co Derry, at about 10pm last night.
He managed to escape but the gang followed him to a neighbouring house, where they assaulted him for a second time. He is understood to have suffered a broken leg and puncture wounds.
Foyle SDLP MLA Pat Ramsay condemned the shootings. “The people of Derry don’t want vigilantes carrying out kangaroo courts or punishments attacks but instead want law and order and due process through the courts," he said.
PA