UDA linked to pounds 1m raid in Belfast

A pounds 1m robbery in Belfast at the weekend was the work of a major loyalist paramilitary group, according to reliable security sources in the city.

Police have discounted original reports that the IRA might have been responsible, and now believe the robbery, one of the Northern Ireland's biggest, was carried out on behalf of the illegal Ulster Defence Association. Yesterday, a man was in custody for questioning.

The sequence of events began on Saturday morning when gunmen forced their way into the home of a Securicor employee in Taughmonagh, a loyalist housing estate in south Belfast. They bound and gagged the man's wife, his father- in-law, a boy of 14, and his brother-in-law, who is handicapped.

The employee was ordered to go to a Securicor depot, collect the money and take it to an isolated spot on the outskirts of south Belfast. When he and a colleague complied they were held by three armed men who handcuffed and hooded them and made off with the cash.

The UDA has technically been on ceasefire since October 1994, but terrorist groups, whether observing a ceasefire or not, need money to spend on prisoners' families' welfare and other outgoings. They remain therefore in the business of raising cash whenever possible.

A man was shot in the arm at the weekend in a continuing feud within the Irish National Liberation Army. Three people have died in the feud.