Three wounded in series of gun attacks

Three men have been wounded in separate paramilitary-style shootings in Northern Ireland.

A 19-year-old man was taken to hospital after he was shot in the Twinbrook area on the outskirts of west Belfast early on 25 September. He was taken from his home by a number of masked men and shot in both ankles.

A second man, aged 27, was shot in the leg at Conlig near Bangor at 9.35pm on 24 September. He was taken from the Kilcooley estate in Bangor to the Old Bangor Road in the village and shot in the left calf.

In Newtownabbey, a third man was shot in another paramilitary-style attack. The19-year-old man was shot in the leg at 8.00pm on 24 September. He was forced into a van while out walking his dog, and was taken to the Fairview area where he was shot in the right calf.

Meanwhile, police attending a call in Duncairn Gardens in north Belfast on Tuesday have come under gun attack. The shooting took place at 5.50pm when around eight shots were fired at a patrol from the direction of Halliday’s Road in the New Lodge area. No one was injured in the attack.

Further shots were fired from the rear of Newington Avenue towards Halliday's Road around 9.10pm. According to police sources more than 25 shots were fired from the nationalist side towards a protestant house on the loyalist side. A 51-year-old woman and her two-and-a-half-year-old grandchild who were in the house at the time of the attack managed to escape injury.

The woman said that she had been terrified at the gunfire and that her grandchild was screaming. Speaking on Radio Ulster, the woman said: “I have never heard gun fire like it. I was screaming, my granddaughter was screaming that she wanted to go home, but I will not be moved out my house. I have lived here all my life and I will live here until the day I die.” (AMcE)