A man in his 30s is seriously ill in hospital after being shot in North Belfast in an attack that is being linked to the Loyalist feud. The shooting took place in a butcher's shop in the Oldpark area of the city shortly before midday. The PUP Assemblyman Billy Hutchinson said that the injured man was a former member of his party who resigned 18 months ago.
Meanwhile, the RUC Chief Constable has described the continuing feud as "absolute, wonton thuggery and brutality". Sir Ronnie Flanagan said that he was making additional resources available to try to halt the killings, but added that the RUC could not do it on their own. He said that the feud was a societal rather than a security problem and the RUC needed the help of influential people like elected and community representatives in order to bring, what he described as, "this barbarity to an end". The Chief Constable was speaking during a visit to Dublin to discuss international co-operation in the fight against drug trafficking and money laundering.
The man who was shot dead in Newtownabbey, on the outskirts of North Belfast last night has been named as 26-year-old Mark Quayle. Loyalist sources say that he was a member of the UVF and that he was killed by the UDA. Two gunmen forced their way into his flat on the Rathcoole Estate at around 6.30pm yesterday evening and shot him several times in the head. He was the seventh person to be killed since the Loyalist feud began in August.
