Kids treated for shock after Belfast gun blasts

Suspected loyalist gunmen have fired shots at a nationalist community centre in north Belfast where a summer scheme for children was being held.

Nobody was injured in the shooting off the Antrim Road in the New Lodge district, but a number of children have been treated in hospital for shock.

Locals said two gunmen came around the back of the Ashton Community Centre on Churchill Street and fired shots at two men standing outside smoking cigarettes, as well as into the centre.

The locals have blamed the Ulster Defence Association, which is supposed to be on ceasefire, for the attack.

Jim Deery, the chairman of a community forum in the Ashton Centre, said people who were inside the building at the time are lucky to be alive.

"There are two bullet holes in the door," he said, "It is a miracle nobody was killed."

Last week, the UDA, using its nomme de guerre, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, withdrew its support for the Good Friday Agreement, but said it will maintain its ceasefire.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has blamed the outlawed loyalist group for orchestrating street clashes between rival nationalist and loyalist communities throughout north Belfast in recent weeks.

On Monday, nationalists from the New Lodge area were involved in clashes with loyalists from the nearby Tiger Bay area.