Two 11-year-old boys have told how they were confronted by a loyalist gunman who opened fire outside shops in Ardoyne, north Belfast. They were standing outside Sean Graham's bookmaker's on the Crumlin Road on Wednesday night when a car pulled up and a masked man pointed the gun at them. Declan Lagan, who was with his friend Gary McWilliams, said: "I saw the driver, who had a scarf over his face, and the other man in the back with a gun. He pointed the gun at me and I just froze. "I said `Please mister, don't shoot me'. He said `shut up' and went to shoot us but the gun jammed and that was when Gary grabbed me and pulled me into the bookies. If he hadn't done this, I would probably be dead."
Gary said: "We ran into the bookies and said there were gunmen outside and all the men went into the wee back room." He said they all remained there for some time because they did not know if the gunmen were going to enter the premises. The attackers fired several shots at the betting office. No one was injured.
The car used in the attempted attack had been hijacked earlier in the loyalist Woodvale area and was found abandoned there. Local nationalists believed the shooting was in retaliation for an attack last weekend on the former UDA commander, Johnny Adair.
However, the Ulster Democratic Party representative, Mr John White, said the UDA was not responsible and blamed dissident loyalists. The RUC described the attack as "an act of madness".
SDLP councillor Mr Martin Morgan said: "If ever there was a new low to be found, it is this. It is a miracle that these thugs did not kill these two children. If this is all the loyalist leadership can now do, then they are even sadder and more degenerate than we expected."
Sinn Fein councillor Mr Mick Conlon said the boys had shown great courage and possibly prevented a massacre at the bookmakers'. The DUP, the Workers' Party and the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the INLA's political wing, also condemned the attack.
Meanwhile, the Emer Art Gallery in Donegall Pass, in south Belfast, has been badly damaged in an arson attack. Petrol was poured inside the building and set alight. Several paintings and sculptures were destroyed. The owner, Mr Michael Flanagan, said his gallery had been attacked because he refused to pay the UVF protection money. "They asked me for a donation. I said `No' and they asked me why not and I said why should I. They said sure I could put it all against tax but I said no, I wouldn't be paying. I had never paid protection and wouldn't be starting now.
"I heard nothing more until my daughter got a phone call and they said if I didn't start paying they would burn me out." He said he now planned to sell the gallery. The Progressive Unionist Party's chief spokesman, Mr David Ervine, described the attack as "morally wrong and reprehensible" but said there was no evidence the UVF was responsible.
A man was hurt in a pipe-bomb attack on his home in Broadway Parade, Belfast, on Wednesday night. He sustained leg injuries when the device was thrown through the kitchen window. Loyalists are believed to have been responsible.
A 19-year old man was beaten and shot in a "punishment" attack in the lower Ormeau, south Belfast. He was confronted by a group in an alleyway off Shaftesbury Avenue and shot in the ankle and hand. His condition in hospital is "stable". The Provisional IRA is believed to have been responsible.