A senior Sinn Fein member yesterday condemned two petrol bomb attacks in Antrim and claimed that loyalists seemed intent on driving the Catholic community from the town. Mr Martin Meehan urged nationalists in the area to be vigilant and he said it was only through good fortune that no one was killed.
At around 1 a.m. yesterday the first petrol bomb was thrown through the window of a flat on Kilgreel Road in the predominately Protestant estate of Parkhall. The occupant escaped uninjured but the flat was extensively damaged. A short time later a petrol bomb was thrown at a car parked nearby. An RUC spokesman said the motive was believed to be sectarian.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on Sunday, a petrol bomb was thrown at a house in Edenaveys Cresent, off the Newry Road, in Armagh. The occupants escaped uninjured.
The area is considered to be a mixed area and police said yesterday that a sectarian motive for this attack was only one motive that officers are examining. Meanwhile, members of the Workers' Party have called for the establishment of a 24-hour anti-sectarian hot-line aimed at helping individuals, groups and organisations who are being intimidated or believe they are under threat.
"With the marching season now upon us, and as we draw nearer to the Drumcree parade, sectarianism is rising, and more and more people feel themselves vulnerable and under threat of intimidation," said party spokesman Mr Paddy Lynn.
SDLP Assembly member Mr Donovan McClelland, with other SDLP members from south Antrim, met RUC Assistant Chief Constable Mr Bill Stewart to discuss loyalist attacks in the area.