Pupils hurt in school bus attack

Eight schoolgirls were treated in hospital tonight after their buses were attacked by stone throwers at a flashpoint in north Belfast.

Two buses carrying the pupils home from the Protestant Girls’ Model School were attacked as they passed through the nationalist Ardoyne area.

A police spokeswoman said that after the incident two rival crowds of loyalists and nationalists gathered in the area before officers and community workers moved in to restore calm.

A spokeswoman for the Mater Hospital confirmed eight children had been treated in the hospital but later released.

She said there were no major injuries.

North Belfast Democratic Unionist MP Nigel Dodds condemned the attack, which he claimed was sectarian.

“I saw some of the children before they went to hospital and they were being attended to by paramedics, some of them very badly shaken,” he said.

“Some were injured, one girl had a head injury, and it is appalling that kids should be facing this sort of journey home from school.

“This was clearly a blatantly sectarian attack and I will be looking for increased police presence and resources to try to stop this happening in the future.”

Frank McCoubrey, an Independent Loyalist councillor, said the schoolgirls could have been killed during the attack.

“There has been a CCTV camera in the area for the last year so we need to ask if the police are in a position to identify the people who did this,” he said.

“They need to be caught as soon as possible because these kids could have been killed.”

Sinn Fein councillor Margaret McClenaghan also condemned the attack, which occurred close to the Catholic Holy Cross Girls school, which was the subject of a loyalist picket two years ago.

“All schoolchildren are entitled to go to their day’s education and to come home safely,” she said.

“Parents shouldn’t have to be sitting anywhere, wondering if their child’s going to come home safely.”