Catholic families leave Belfast after loyalist threats

Three Catholic families have left their homes in a mixed area of south Belfast after receiving threats from loyalist paramilitaries.

Two of the families moved out of their homes on Tuesday and the third, a married couple with four children, moved out last night.

The families all lived in the same street, which adjoins a working-class loyalist area dominated by the Ulster Defence Association.

Peter O'Reilly, an SDLP councillor who helped the families move out, said they were terrified after police informed them that their lives were in danger from loyalists.

Alec Maskey, the Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast, described the situation as a disgrace.

A spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group, the political wing of the UDA, denied than any threats were made.