A family escaped injury this morning when a pipe-bomb was thrown through the living room window of their house in Larne, Co Antrim.
The device failed to explode. A couple and son were asleep upstairs in the house in Byran Street when the incident happened shortly after midnight.
Nearby houses were evacuated and residents spent the night at a nearby YMCA.
A British army technical team removed the device for examination.
There were no injuries.Police are investigating a motive for the attack.
A PSNI spokesman described the "vicious attack as nothing but a reminder of the past."
Meanwhile, police in north Belfast are investigating a shooting incident at a house in Clifton Park last night.
A number of shots were fired at the house by a gang of men who escaped in a red car.
The man and woman inside the house were unhurt.