2 Gunmen Kill 3, Hurt 9 in Attack on Busy Belfast Bar

BELFAST, Northern Ireland —  Two gunmen believed to be Protestant extremists opened fire with semi-automatic weapons in a crowded bar patronized by Roman Catholics on Sunday, killing three men and wounding nine others, police said.

“Everybody was trying to dive for cover, but there was just no chance for some,” one survivor said.

Father Anthony Alexander, a Catholic priest who was called to the scene, said: “It was horrific, terrible. There were bodies and injured everywhere--blood and broken glass.”

In London, an anonymous caller claiming to represent the small, outlawed Protestant Action Force saids the group took responsibility for the attack, according to a radio report by the British Broadcasting Corp. However, a spokesman at the BBC’s Belfast office said the caller did not give a recognized code used by the group, which opposes unification of British-ruled Northern Ireland with the predominantly Catholic Irish Republic.

At 2:30 p.m., the small, downtown Avenue Bar on Union Street was crowded with 20 people enjoying new, looser Sunday drinking laws, police said. The door to the bar was locked as a security measure, and admittance was gained by ringing a doorbell.

“They (the attackers) rang the doorbell, were admitted and they stepped inside and opened fire,” a police spokesman said. “We don’t yet know what weapons were used, but they were semi-automatic.”

Two Dead at the Scene

Police said two people were dead at the scene and a third was dead on arrival at a local hospital. Nine others were wounded, police said.

One survivor who did not want to be identified said: “The first one took his time. He was looking about and then he just started firing. The other one came up behind him, and he started firing at people too.”

Another patron of the bar said: “I panicked and dived for cover. I just heard shooting. Then people started throwing bottles and drove the two out.”

One passer-by on Union Street said: “I didn’t take notice until the gunfire started. It seemed to go on for an eternity.”

The gunmen had hijacked a taxi in the Protestant Shankill Road area just before the attack and afterward drove off in the direction of the area, police said.

Police and troops flooded the area around the pub and set up roadblocks. An army helicopter hovered above.

Victims from Catholic Areas

Local people said the dead came from Unity Flats, Ballymurphy and North Queen Street, all Catholic areas.

Witnesses said a patrol of the Ulster Defense Regiment, a largely Protestant security force, was near the pub during the attack but appeared to have seen nothing and carried on with its normal duties.

Witnesses said the downtown street outside was practically deserted at the time of the attack.

Politicians on both sides condemned the shootings. A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office, the British government’s administrative arm in the province, called the attack “a despicable act carried out by sectarian animals.” He said all efforts would be made to apprehend the gunmen.

Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has increased since March 6, when British security forces shot to death in Gibraltar three unarmed members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, which is seeking to end British rule and unite the province with the republic.