Pupils stay at home following attacks on schools

Pupils at two schools in Co Antrim were forced to stay at home today after a suspicious device was found taped to the front gate.

Army bomb experts were called to the scene of the security alert at Larne High School and Moyle Primary School on Tuesday morning. The alert was later declared a hoax.

Condemning the incident, Sinn Féin Representative for East Antrim, Oliver McMullan, said: "This sort of activity is wrong and should stop. Schools must be left in peace to get on with the job of educating our young people and attacks on schools from whatever quarter must be met with a united political response.

"Those responsible for these attacks must be left in no doubt that political leaderships across the board will stand up against this sort of activity."

Elsewhere, a fire has destroyed a classroom at an Irish language school on the outskirts of west Belfast.

The alarm was raised at Scoil Na Fuiseoige in Poleglass at around 12.30am on Tuesday.

Police believe the fire was started deliberately. One temporary classroom was destroyed while another was damaged.

Sinn Féin councillor, Sue Ramsey, branded those responsible for the attack as "criminal hoods".

She added: “People in the Poleglass area are sick of this sort of criminal behaviour and outraged that a local primary school has been damaged in this way.

"It is time for the community to stand up to these individuals and make it very clear to them that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

(MB)