LONDONDERRY DEATHS Masked men kill five in bar

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33106, 22 December 1972, Page 11

LONDONDERRY DEATHS Masked men kill five in bar

-X Z P A.-Reuter—Copynp

LONDONDERRY, December 21.

A bloody, gangster-style murder of five Roman Catholics in a Londonderry bar late last night sent a wave of horror across Northern Ireland early today. I he shooting brought the death toll in just over 12 hours of shootings and bombings in the province to eight.

■ Two masked men burst into Annie’s Top-of-the-Hill bar in the mixed Roman Catholic and Protestant Waterside district as late-night drinkers were watching I television. They sprayed the customers with twobursts of machine-gun | fire.

I Four men fell dead and a (fifth died later in hospital. Four others were injured, two seriously. It was the bloodiest incident for many weeks in the continuing violence in the British-ruled province and it brought death back to North-

em Ireland’s second largest I city, which has been relaI lively quiet in recent weeks. The mass killing came after ■the murder on the edge of the city only hours earlier of a Protestant part-time soldier ■in the Ulster Defence Regi- 1 intent (U.D.R.). He was gunned down by a sniper as ne worked on a'building site. There was immediate (speculation that the bar kill- ( ings were by militant Protestants in retaliation for the U.D.R. man’s death. The killers drove up to the ;bar in a saloon car with two ■ other men. Thev entered and opened fire immediately. As customers dived for cover the gunmen ran out and the; car drove off at high speed. Minutes later a car was found burning not far from! the murder scene and police said that the killers apparently escaped in another vehicle after setting the first car on fire. Troops were rushed into the area after the shooting! in a bid to prevent any out-! break of sectarian rioting. ■ All cars in the area were stopped and searched.

t| Two other men — both • Roman Catholics — were . killed yesterday: one as he • waited for a bus in Belfast i and the other as he walked f in a country lane in Cion ■more. near Dungannon, ■i Countv Tyrone. ;■ With the Londonderrv ;■ shootings. their deaths (brought the number of ap- ■ parent sectarian assastina■tions in the province this year to 119. Seventy-nine of ■ the victims have been Roman (Catholics and 39 Protestant* ■ Bomb blasts shook areas of ■ Belfast. Londonderry Dun ! murry, and Dungannon yes ; i terday though there were no ' casualties as a result of ■ these. In Belfast early today, two i teen-age sisters and a mar ■ were shot from passing cars (The two sisters, aged W and 117, were walking with a group when one was shot in the arm and the other in the j leg. They were taken to hospital. but their condition was said to be not serious. ■ The man was found with gunshot wounds in another (part of the city.