Man injured in loyalist clashes

A man was critically injured during overnight clashes between feuding loyalists in Belfast in which shots were fired.

Several others were wounded as fighting broke out between rival factions believed to be involved in a festering dispute.

At least 100 people were involved in the disturbances in the east of city, where tensions have been running high following the murder of a loyalist paramilitary chief three days ago.

Builder Jim Johnston, 45, who had links with the Red Hand Commando terror group, was gunned down outside his £500,000 (€699,000) home in the Co Down village of Crawfordsburn on Thursday.

Detectives believe he may have been killed in a dispute over drugs and the murder of Loyalist Volunteer Force member Stephen Warnock in Newtownards last September.

The latest trouble flared on the Castlereagh Road at about 3am.

The critically injured man was in hospital with serious head injuries, and another man who was shot during the fighting was in stable condition, police said.

Order was restored after officers moved in.