POLICE reinforcements are being brought in from as far away as Coleraine to deal with disturbances involving loyalists in Carrickfergus.
Officers are believed to be working 14-hour shifts in an attempt to keep rival factions in the Co Antrim town apart.
Last Friday a mob attempted to force a leading loyalist from his home in the Glenfield estate.
The tense stand-off outside the home of George Gilmore was filmed and showed over 100 men, some of them masked, marching on the property.
There were reports that loyalists also marched on the home of a local UDA commander on Monday night, although police said they had no record of any major incident.
Cars and vans entering Carrickfergus have been stopped and searched as part of the high-profile PSNI operation.
Checkpoints have also appeared in Rathcoole and Larne where members of the mob who marched on Gilmore's house are thought to have travelled from.
Sinn Féin MLA Oliver McMullan said the ongoing trouble was "doing nothing for the image of Larne or Carrick".
"Taking large amounts of officers from other places and leaving those areas without adequate policing is not the long term answer," he said.
"It is important that police get a grip on this and make arrests before the situation is allowed to escalate."
