Gunman murders man sitting in car

Police were today hunting gunmen who shot a man dead as he sat in a car on the outskirts of a flashpoint area in North Belfast.

Responsibility for last night’s killing was claimed swiftly by the loyalist Red Hand Defenders in a call to a Belfast newsroom.

Police said the victim, believed to be in his 30s, was gunned down on the Upper Crumlin Road as he sat in a parked car close to a spot known locally as Beattie’s Garage.

Two or three men emerged from a flight of steps, went to the parked silver Vauxhall Frontera and opened fire through the open driver’s window.

A passenger sitting beside him was uninjured but was taken to hospital suffering from shock, police said.

At the scene Det Chief Insp Ken Armstrong, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said investigating officers did not necessarily believe the shooting was sectarian.

He said: ‘‘The Red Hand Defenders have made a claim of responsibility and this is something that we are investigating.

‘‘But at this early stage we have not ruled out a drugs motive.’’

According to the ambulance service the victim was shot a number of times and would have died immediately.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds condemned the killing which he said would increase fear and tensions in the already fraught area.

The Democratic Unionists said: ‘‘Events like this shocking, brutal murder carried out in cold blood are a reminder of the bad old days when North Belfast suffered more than its fare share of such horrific events.’’

Mr Dodds said many people thought those days were behind them forever. ‘‘Unfortunately it appears there are still people who have guns and who are prepared to use those guns in pursuit of their own narrow and selfish agenda.’’

Loyalists were also being blamed for a pipe-bomb attack yesterday in which two Catholic teenager narrowly escaped injury in the north of the city.

Police said the device exploded in the nationalist Hillman Street in the Duncairn area.

Locals blamed loyalists and said three men appeared in Duncairn Gardens and threw the bomb over the peace line into Hillman Street where the teenagers were standing close to the sectarian interface.

Army bomb disposal experts examined the scene. There was no damage.