Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FAMILY TELL OF TERROR AT PETROL BOMB ATTACKS
Police probing sectarian hate crime at home
A FAMILY have been left traumatised after their home was targeted with petrol bombs.
Police have opened an investigation after “bottles containing flammable liquid” were thrown at the property in Springfield Heights, West Belfast, and confirmed the incident is being treated as a sectarian hate crime.
Speaking to the Mirror following the ordeal, the homeowner said her young son and grandchild were in the house at the time of the attack on Sunday.
She added: “I have lived in this house for nine years and never get involved in anything. We keep ourselves to ourselves and are just in shock at this whole thing. Yesterday afternoon I was in the house with my daughter and we were washing the dishes at the window when she said to me that she could see a fire.
“I originally thought it was my bin but when we went out the front I spotted the cloth and could smell petrol.
“I just knew that it was a petrol bomb and told her to get in quick – so we ran in and as we got in the front door he threw another one. Then another one hit just near my front window so I phoned the police and they came within five minutes. I had to put my one-year-old grandson in my son’s room, who is 11, and tell him to keep him there. I was so frightened for them.
“The police had left only five minutes and I heard another bang and then another. My daughter’s partner went out and saw the petrol bomb on the ground.
“The police advised us that we shouldn’t be staying in the house but we had nowhere to go.”
Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey branded the attack “reckless and vicious”.