Alliance condemns East Belfast shooting

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 21st Jul 2005

East Belfast Alliance MLA, Naomi Long, has condemned an incident in which shots were fired at a house in Avonorr Drive, off the Beersbridge Road in east Belfast area on Wednesday evening. A man, who was in the house at the time of the attack escaped injury; however the police are treating the shooting as attempted murder. They are also investigating a possible link with the on-going loyalist feud.

Cllr. Long, former Chair of the East Belfast Sub-Group of the District Policing Partnership said, "I utterly condemn this shooting and I am thankful that on this occasion no-one was injured. I would appeal to anyone with information to contact the Police.

"If this incident is linked to the UVF-LVF feud, as people are speculating, then I would appeal for the people involved to cease before any more lives are lost. This is at least the third gun attack in east Belfast in as many weeks, one of which ended in a fatality.

"It is also past time that those elected representatives who have links with loyalist paramilitaries, including the PUP, ended their silence on the feud and make it clear publicly that such violence is totally unacceptable and wrong.

"I would also call on the Secretary of State to review the ceasefires of the groups involved. We cannot tolerate a situation where the Government effectively ignores a killing spree, provided it is internal to loyalism."

ENDS