Sectarian tensions were triggered in north Belfast yesterday after cars were set ablaze in a daylight attack on a Catholic girls school. The incident followed an attack on a bus carrying girls from a state or Protestant girls school last week.
Two men, said to be in their late teens, walked into Our Lady of Mercy secondary school in the loyalist Ballysillan area of north Belfast, smashed windows of staff cars and set them alight shortly after noon yesterday. Six cars were burnt out and two other cars were also damaged.
The unmasked youths ran off but it is believed they were caught on the school's close circuit television system.
Police were last night studying the film of the incident. Children were sent home for the day after the attack.
The principal, Mr Peter Daly, said he believed the school was targeted because it was a Catholic school based in a loyalist area. The school was also attacked 18 months ago when up to 20 staff vehicles were damaged by a gang wielding sledgehammers.
Last Friday, 11 pupils from the nearby mainly Protestant Girls' Model School were treated in hospital for minor injuries after their school bus was attacked by stone throwers in north Belfast.
North Belfast saw relatively little trouble over the summer but since the schools re-opened, there has been a number of sectarian incidents which police, local politicians and community activists have been trying to curtail.
Mr Nigel Dodds, the DUP MP for the area, condemned yesterday's attack .
Mr Alban Maginness, the former SDLP Assembly member for north Belfast, said the attack was the latest in a long line of shameful and cowardly acts on Our Lady of Mercy school.
