Filipina nurse may return home after petrol-bomb attack

A Filipina nurse who was targeted with her family in a petrol bomb attack was tonight thinking about leaving the North and going home.

The nurse, her husband and their two young children were asleep in their Dundonald home when they were targeted in an attack the police suspect was racially motivated.

The attack is the latest in a growing number of sickening attacks carried out by racists across the North.

No-one was injured when two devices hit the Church Road house at around 3.45am this morning.

One failed to ignite, while the other caused minor scorch damage.

The nurse, who works in the nearby Ulster Hospital and who wishes not to be identified, said they heard a loud bang below the bedroom window and saw flames. The telephone line had also been cut.

“My husband went out and when he looked up there was a big note, a death threat or something about racism,” she said.

The woman, who has children aged two months and five years, said she had been living in Dundonald for two years.

“Nothing like this has every happened before, this is the first time. We are afraid so we are moving out. We are planning to move back home, probably,” she said.

Health Service union Unison condemned the attack saying yet another of their members had faced “a life-threatening horrendous attack simply because they come from another country”.

Regional secretary Patricia McKeown said last year had been marked by racist attacks on health and other vital workers in society.

“We took to the streets, we protested to government and to the police, but above all we called on people of influence in our communities to put pressure on to stop it for good,” she said.

Ms McKeown said the union would continue to support its members from different ethnic backgrounds and to fight for their rights – and they expected the authorities to do the same.

“We call on the PSNI to prioritise the investigation, arrest and prosecution of those responsible for this hate crime and to keep the public informed of their progress,” she added.

DUP Strangford MP Iris Robinson condemned the incident, and urged the local community to rally round the victims.

Mrs Robinson also praised the foreign communities’ contribution to the area: “In many cases, including this one, these individuals provide vital work in the Ulster Hospital or local nursing home.”

Alliance Party Vice Chair Michael Long questioned what these attacks were designed to achieve.

He went on to say: “People in Northern Ireland, no matter what their origin, deserve to be treated with respect as part of the community.”

Police want to speak to three people wearing hooded tops who were seen in the area around the time of the incident.