LOYALIST paramilitaries are suspected of involvement in a second petrol bomb attack on police in a Co Antrim housing estate in a week.
The device was thrown at a PSNI vehicle by two masked men in the loyalist Castlemara Drive area of Carrickfergus at around 2.20am on Sunday.
After striking the vehicle the petrol bomb bounced onto the road and ignited.
No damage was caused to the vehicle.
The attack took place amid growing tensions with loyalism with the finger of blame being pointed at the breakaway South East Antrim UDA faction.
It is the second time in a week police have been targeted by petrol bombers in the estate.
A similar device was thrown at police in the early hours of last Sunday morning in the same area as officers attended a road traffic accident.
Earlier this month two police officers were left shaken after a masked man threw a brick at a mobile patrol in the Pinewood Avenue district of the town.
East Antrim DUP assembly member David Hilditch condemned the latest attack and said there appeared to be “tensions” in the area.
“Obviously there has been difficulties with relations and it’s disgusting it has come to this,” he said.
The DUP representative said he planned to meet senior police officers today to discuss the attacks.
