Race attack victims 'could flee NI'

Sorin Ciurar, 20, was confronted by a pile of broken glass after thugs shattered his bathroom window in east Belfast.

He said he was left shaken by the ordeal late on Wednesday night in a loyalist working-class part of the city.

More than 100 of his countrymen left their homes in recent days and sheltered in a church hall and leisure centre after earlier property attacks.

Mr Ciurar said: "I am frightened. I don't know what we are going to do now."

There are 13 people in the three-storey property on the Newtownards Road, a busy thoroughfare. They have been there for around three months.

Some of the five children were seen peering from bedroom windows at the scrum of media and police outside their door. Community workers and councillors also called to offer their help.

Mr Ciurar said he had lived in Northern Ireland for more than a year but moved from Donegall Avenue in the Village to his present home. In badly broken English he described hearing the window smashing and seeing the debris.

This attack comes after two homes in the Village were targeted and windows broken, forcing about 20 families to seek emergency housing.

Northern Ireland's chief constable defended his force's response to the racist violence. Sir Hugh Orde denied claims that his officers were slow to react and said police responded promptly to calls for help, insisting officers took racist crime very seriously.