By Staff Reporter
POLICE have vowed to maintain a high-profile presence on the streets of Newtownards after a night of coordinated attacks on two homes and a business that left families fearing for their lives.
The PSNI says extra officers will patrol the area as detectives investigate the linked incidents, while Strangford MP Jim Shannon has warned the attacks could easily have resulted in serious injuries or loss of life.
Police say they are following a number of lines of enquiry and it is understood one of them is linked to the loyalist feud which erupted in the town in 2024.
The attacks occurred on Sunday night when a home in Bristol Park was targeted by a number of masked men armed with a hammer, two vehicles were set alight outside a business in the Victoria Avenue area and a sofa caught fire when a petrol bomb was thrown into a home in Weavers Grange.
The attacks began at around 10.50pm when a number of masked men, dressed in dark clothing, attacked a home in Bristol Park, smashing the front windows, a door window and car windows with a hammer.
“The men also attempted to light a carton filled with accelerant, and threw it into the vehicle but it failed to ignite”, said Detective Sergeant Marley from the PSNI’s Criminal Investigations department.
“A family, including children, were at home at the time of this attack and this must have been a terrifying experience,” he added.
A short time later, at around 11.25pm, the Fire and Rescue Service were called to a fire in the Victoria Avenue area. A bus and a car had been totally burnt out and extensive damage had been caused to business premises.
Then, just after 11.30pm a number of masked men, wearing dark clothing, smashed the living room window at a house in Weavers Grange with hammers, before throwing a petrol bomb inside, setting a sofa alight. Again, a family was at home at the time of the incident.
“Thankfully, no injuries have been reported but it’s completely unacceptable that members of our community should be placed at such grave risk”, Mr Marley said.
“The residents of Weavers Grange do not want to return to the violence and intimidation they have suffered in the past.”
He continued police believed these incidents were linked and they are following a number of lines of enquiry.
“There will be an increased police presence in the area in the coming days as our investigation continues”, the officer said “We are appealing to anyone who was in these areas at the reported times, and saw anything suspicious, to call police on 101, quoting reference 1588 of 26/07/26”.
Police are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have relevant dashcam, CCTV or doorbell footage on the route between these locations. Alternatively, people can contact police online using their witness appeal form at https://reporting.psni.police.uk/appeals or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers- uk.org.
Strangford MP Jim Shannon said he was aware of some friction in Newtownards last week and his office was involved in trying to get some people relocated into alternative accommodation.
“I condemn in the strongest terms attacks on any businesses or homes where families and people are living”, he said. “There is the potential for incidents like this to go seriously wrong and the implications could be very serious involving injuries or loss of life”.
He said the police can only do their job in partnership with the local community and he appealed to anyone with information on the attacks to contact the PSNI.
“Communities have their part to play to find the culprits and those involved as 99% of the community want to live together in peace”, he said. “The PSNI want to catch these culprits and have those involved taken off the streets and put in prison where they will no longer be a danger to anybody”.
Strangford MLA Nick Mathison has also condemned the attacks branding the disregard for people’s lives and public property ‘utterly reprehensible’.
“What we saw take place on Sunday night across the town was shocking” he said.
“Between the damage to public property, and the lives put at risk in the homes that were targeted, this behaviour by masked individuals is utterly reprehensible and there is no excuse for it”.
Local residents, Mr Mathison continued, were ‘beyond fed up with this type of violence, done with no other purpose and to achieve nothing other than to terrify and exert coercive control over the community”.
“We must all stand firmly united against it”, he added.
“We can only be glad no one was seriously injured, but my thoughts are with those impacted by the attacks and I want to thank the emergency services for their work to guarantee the safety of those in the vicinity of these incidents”.
Mr Mathison urged anyone with any information that could help the PSNI in their investigations to get in touch with them or report it anonymously via Crimestoppers.
