An elderly Catholic couple have been forced to leave their home of 27 years in Antrim town after masked men attacked the house with petrol bombs early yesterday. It was the second attack on the house in the past week, and police and fire-fighters who went to the scene in Birchhill Park were attacked by a crowd throwing petrol bombs and stones.
Overnight on Thursday and early yesterday morning widespread violence continued in loyalist areas. There were 49 attacks on the security forces, including one shooting and four bomb attacks. A total of 39 petrol bombings took place and there were 14 hijackings. At least 13 homes were attacked and 26 arrests were made.
Rioting began after midnight and lasted for more than six hours in the Co Down seaside town of Kilkeel where a number of Catholic business were targeted. An impromptu Orange parade had been held in the town earlier and loyalists blocked roads.
A number of premises were damaged as rioters burned cars and a lorry. A Catholic-owned pub, the Riverside Bar, was badly damaged when a burning car was pushed up against the premises. An upstairs lounge was destroyed by fire and windows broken.
An off-duty policeman and his wife were taken from their car and assaulted during the Kilkeel rioting and a Protestant milkman in his 60s was attacked by youths wielding sticks in a nationalist area of the town.
Doctors in Craigavon Area Hospital said the lives of 10 newborn babies had been put at risk because of a bomb hoax. The infants had to be moved from the premature unit after the warning from "Young Loyalists".
Police yesterday recovered 12-ft wooden planks with metal spikes in Manor Park, Lisburn, which they said were "clearly designed to be thrown on roads to stop vehicles".
At teatime a bus was hijacked at the Upper Newtownards Road in Belfast when two men, one armed with a handgun, ordered the driver to go to the loyalist, Ballybeen Estate. The interior of the bus was damaged by fire.
Early yesterday morning an RUC officer fired a warning shot when he was stopped at an illegal roadblock on the main Armagh to Portadown road.
Protesters blocked roads around Belfast yesterday afternoon as the "holiday" weekend exodus began. The Westlink ring-road was closed for a time by an illegal roadblock. Women blocking the road demanded to see drivers' identity cards.
Roads were also blocked yesterday evening in Comber, Carrickfergus, Killyleagh, Dunmurry, Lurgan, Downpatrick and Newtownards. Traffic heading over the Border was very heavy.
Public transport was also affected. Train services were running normally yesterday evening, except for the cross-Border service with passengers being bussed from Belfast to Dundalk.
Belfast city bus services were operating normally at tea-time but many Ulsterbus services were withdrawn at 7 p.m. There was no service in Carrickfergus, Greenisland or Portadown.
Mr Glyn Roberts of Families Against Intimidation and Terror (FAIT) said yesterday that his organisation had been dealing with some of the worst sectarian cases in its eight-year history.
"The Drumcree protests are fast descending into anti-Catholic pogroms and once again we would make a plea to the Orange Order to go home and tell people to stop street protests," he added.