Loyalists target Catholic families in pipe bomb attacks

Two families narrowly escaped injury in separate sectarian pipe bomb attacks in Co Derry overnight.

In the first, a device was thrown through the kitchen window of a house in the Harpurs Hill area of Coleraine at 10.30pm.

It landed on the floor but did not explode. The occupants of the house, a woman and her 8-year-old and 14-year-old children, were uninjured.

Another such device was later thrown through the living room window of a house in the Ballysally area of Coleraine.

A couple watching television in the room escaped just as it exploded. Their children, aged 2 and 4, were asleep upstairs at the time.

The RUC said both attacks were on Catholic families living in loyalist areas and are being treated as sectarian.