Community workers seek measures to address Belfast suicide rate

Community workers in the North have called for urgent action to address the rising suicide rate in Belfast.

The call follows the third suicide in the west of the city in the space of a week.

The latest victim was the brother of Sinn Féin assemblyman Fra McCann, who just last week had called for more action from the British government to tackle the high suicide rate.

Thirteen people also took their own lives in north and west Belfast in January and February of this year, including one young man who hung himself from Holy Cross chapel in Ardoyne just hours after the funeral of a friend who had also killed himself.

Community workers in the area say voluntary groups working with young people at risk are not receiving enough support from the authorities.

The most recent figures available put the suicide rate in the North at 26 per 100,000 of population, compared with a British figure of 15 per 100,000.