Northern Ireland

Shooting of man in Co Antrim by masked gang ‘not thought to be sectarian'

Police on the Bann Road area on the outskirts of Ballymoney Co Antrim where a man was attacked and shot by a gang at his home. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin  
Police on the Bann Road area on the outskirts of Ballymoney Co Antrim where a man was attacked and shot by a gang at his home. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin   Police on the Bann Road area on the outskirts of Ballymoney Co Antrim where a man was attacked and shot by a gang at his home. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin  

A VICTIM shot in Co Antrim in what police believe was an attempted murder has been named locally as Paul Kelly, originally from Coleraine.

The Catholic man, who is in his 30s, was shot in the back and struck about the head and body outside his house in the Bann Road area of Ballymoney just after 8pm on Sunday.

The masked gunmen were driven from the scene in the direction of Bendooragh.

He remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

Police are believed to have visited the homes of several well known loyalists in north Antrim in order to ask about their whereabouts at the time of the shooting.

However, the motive for the attack is not thought to have been sectarian.

North Antrim DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said the attack was what "our community wants".

"On a day when we have been remembering brave soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom, it is sad that there are those in our community who engage in this barbaric behaviour believing it to be justified and that they are doing something for their community..

"Nothing could be further from the truth. In the cover of darkness masked men took the law into their own hands to execute their form of justice."

TUV leader Jim Allister said it was "imperative" that those responsible were brought to justice.