A number of workmen escaped injury when a pipe-bomb exploded at a community centre in a sectarian interface area of north Belfast at lunchtime yesterday.
The device was thrown at the Brookfield Mill centre in the Crumlin Road/Ardoyne area. A second pipe-bomb failed to explode and was defused by British army technical officers. The first device caused slight damage to a building and car.
A Sinn FΘin councillor, Ms Margaret McClenaghan, blamed the Ulster Defence Association for the attack which she said was aimed at provoking a reaction from the nationalist side. "It's only a matter of time before someone will be killed," she said.
The incident came only hours after shots were fired during sectarian clashes between rival factions in another flash-point area nearby. Opposing crowds exchanged taunts at around 2 a.m. before hurling bricks and stones at each other at Clifton Park Avenue.
An RUC spokesman confirmed that a number of shots were then fired from a handgun from the loyalist Alloa Street area towards a crowd on the nationalist Cliftonville Road. A 19-year-old woman later attended hospital saying she had been shot in the leg at Clifton Park Avenue.
In a separate incident, a pipe- bomb was defused by British army bomb disposal experts in the early hours yesterday in another part of north Belfast. The device, described by security forces as "crude", was found at Newington Street. It was taken away for forensic examination.
On Saturday, two blast bomb-type devices exploded and stones were thrown during clashes in the nearby Tiger's Bay/ North Queen Street area, another sectarian interface. Nobody was injured.
Yesterday afternoon, a 200-strong crowd gathered again in the area and hurled stones, bottles and fireworks at each other before being dispersed by the RUC and British army.
The Sinn FΘin MLA for the area, Mr Gerry Kelly, accused loyalist paramilitaries of attempting to heighten sectarian tensions. "It's ridiculous, it's out of order and when things like this are used I can categorically say that an organisation is involved." It was time for the British government to clarify who they thought was behind the attacks in north Belfast, he said.
Referring to an earlier incident in which a nine-year-old boy was allegedly hit by a brick on the Limestone Road, Mr Kelly said attacks on nationalists was on the increase.