Police in riot gear were called onto the streets of north Belfast overnight amid ongoing tensions surrounding the expulsion of the Shoukri brothers from the Ulster Defence Association.

Tensions remain high in loyalist areas of north Belfast today amid an internal UDA dispute sparked by the expulsion of the organisation's local leadership last week.

Top loyalists Andre and Ihab Shoukri have been thrown out of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the paramilitary organisation said today.