TROUBLED ULSTER Fresh surge of violence

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33438, 21 January 1974, Page 15

TROUBLED ULSTER Fresh surge of violence

BEI E \S I . January 2(1. Hundreds oi Protestant teen-agers rioted through the dockland area ol Bel last last night, setting lire to buildings and looting shops in a wave nt violence directed against the British \rniv.

troops in armoured vehicles were stoned, and shots were tired at patrolling soldiers after a local Protestant leader had been taken away by troops for questioning. Buses and cars were hijacked and overturned to form barricades to prevent security forces, including

policemen and firemen from idearing the area 1 Several families were taken to safety from their ’ homes as flames from th--1 blazing shops spread r neighbouring buildings After eight hours of riot mg. which. surprisingly enough, left no known casualties. the Army moved in with ' bulldozers and reinforce ments. Eye-witnesses say that sul len crowds of bystanderwatched quietly as the solIdiers dismantled the barn j cades and helped firemen tc [contain the fires. In other parts of Northern : Ireland, bomb attacks were made during the night [against a Customs post, com munication links, and a r [taurant in which executive member' of a leading Roman Catholic political party were holding their monthly meet ing. Mi Gerry 1 nt. the leader ot the Social Democrat i< and Labour Party and deputv leader of the province’s nev power-sharing Government was with his colleagues in ithe restaurant in Dungannon. 'County Tyrone, when a bomb [alert was sounded. I .Minutes after he and his colleagues had left, the bomb exploded and destroyed the building. Across the border >n the Irish Republic, the Dublin police reported that a leading member of the Protestant Ulster Defence Regiment, Mr Cormal McCabe, aged 42, had disappeared after registering at a border hotel, and that they were treating his disappearance as a kidnapping.