Migrants targeted in racist attack
Migrant European workers were targeted in another racist attack in Northern Ireland today.
The two Portuguese men and a Polish man escaped injury in the attack on their Co Armagh home.
A petrol bomb was hurled at the front of the house in Portadown as the men slept.
The bomb bounced off an upstairs bedroom window and exploded on the front porch of the house in the Armagh Road. The front of the building suffered scorch damage, but the flames did not spread.
It was the latest in a growing campaign of attacks against migrant workers - many in Co Armagh.
The three men targeted today work in a local factory and had lived without trouble in the house for the past two years.
Local SDLP assembly member Delores Kelly said she condemned the attack.
She said: “There seems to be an ongoing campaign against migrant workers here, who are contributing to the local economy and indeed many would say keeping our factories open.”
Ms Kelly appealed to anyone with influence in the area to stop the attacks before someone was killed.
In a separate attack a house in the village of Mosside near Ballymoney, Co Antrim was damaged in another petrol bomb attack. The occupants were uninjured.
One man was was arrested for questioning about the bombing, which came two nights after an attack on the pub next door.
Meanwhile in Derry the all clear was given by army bomb disposal experts after a blast bomb exploded near a bar in the city centre.
A device was thrown late last night.
No one was injured but windows and a door in a nearby house was damaged.
The security forces sealed off the area for several hours and evacuated a number of homes while a second device was examined – it was later declared to be a hoax.
