Gunmen attack security patrol

Terrorists opened fire on a joint army and police patrol in north Belfast last night, injuring three soldiers and two police officers, writes Ian Burrell.

Witnesses said four men drove past a checkpoint on the corner of Hillview Road, Old Park, just after 10pm before spinning their car around. Two men were reported to have jumped out of the white car and fired about 20 automatic rounds at the security patrol. Another man got out of the car and threw a blast bomb at the injured people. The vehicle then sped out of the mainly nationalist area.

The three soldiers were taken to the Musgrave Park military hospital, but their conditions were not life threatening. A spokesman at the Mater Memorial Hospital in Belfast said that a woman RUC officer, aged 30, had been admitted with gunshot wounds to her right thigh and ankle and was "stable".