Call for calm after Belfast 'hatchet and hammers' attack

22/08/2006 - 14:56:00
An appeal for calm was issued today to a community in west Belfast which witnessed an horrific brawl in which a man was attacked with a hatchet and shot at.

Sinn Féin councillor Marie Moore called for no repeat of the gruesome incident in the Turf Lodge area on Saturday which also saw the man being run over with a car.

The victim, who was in his fifties, was taken to hospital after also being battered with hammers in Norglen Drive.

Eyewitnesses said he had a foot-long gash in his back.

He was discharged from the Royal Victoria Hospital but no complaint was made to the police about the incident.

Ms Moore said: “The use of knives or weapons in this sort of way is completely unacceptable to people in the area. We would appeal for calm and for no repeat of the incident over the weekend.”

Police confirmed they were alerted to the incident in the staunchly republican area.

“It was alleged that a number of people were fighting with hatchets,” a PSNI spokesperson said. “However no formal complaint has been made to police.”

Neighbours claimed the dispute may have been sparked by a row over a dog. It soon intensified as a car was rammed into another vehicle in the same street.

One of those who watched said a man produced a gun and shot at the victim as he ran to his house.

“It was terrifying. I went into shock,” the woman said. “He was trying to crawl away but was getting whacked with a hatchet, taking lumps out of him. His back was opened wide.”

Anxious residents claimed retaliation was inevitable.

The incident also triggered calls from a nationalist SDLP councillor for more co-operation between the community and the PSNI to tackle knife crime.

A knife amnesty over a three-week period in May and June this year saw 886 weapons handed in to police.

Senior officers said over the period there was a 30% drop in knife crime. Councillor Tim Attwood said people needed to bear in mind the risks.

“The knife amnesty was quite successful and that type of approach needs to be encouraged,” he said.

“These dangerous knives need to be taken out of the community. We need a legislative change preventing the sale of lethal knives.

“There are concerns that there’s been a rise in knife attacks in Belfast and across the north. We need to challenge this knife culture that exists, especially at weekend when people have been taking drink.”

The minimum age to buy a blade is to rise to 18 under official plans.

Approximately 1,200 knife-related crimes occur across the North every year.

The amnesty followed the revelation that knife crime had doubled in nearly a decade. Blades were dumped at designated bins in civic amenity sites during the amnesty.