Just hours after firefighters were attacked by a gang of youths as they arrived to tackle a blaze in Bangor, about 15 acres of gorse have been destroyed in a deliberate fire near Dungiven, Co Londonderry and firemen were last night also tackling a "substantial" blaze on Black Mountain above west Belfast.

About 12 acres on the Belfast mountain were destroyed in the fire and a similar outbreak - near the famous Knockagh Co Antrim War Memorial - above Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus left two acres of gorge destroyed in what was also believed to have been a malicious fire.

These incidents came after more than 40 firefighters attended the Co Londonderry blaze on the Mullaghmeash Road at Feeney, which began at teatime on Saturday.

According to the Fire and Rescue Service, it has dealt with almost 200 gorse fires in the past six weeks and they said the majority of these fires have subsequently been started deliberately.

However, the Co Down incident was serious too, in that the firefighters and their vehicles were targeted too as they were called out to deal with a fire at industrial premises owned by Cordiners Kitchens off the Clandeboye Road at the weekend.

The blaze in an old warehouse was described at the time as substantial with part of the West Circular Road in the town sealed off to traffic for a time.

Just weeks ago, the service suffered many such attacks in a short period of a few days at various locations across NI.

(BMcC)