Paramilitary-style shootings double over last year
Paramilitary-style shootings have doubled over the past year, the PSNI has revealed.
There were 28 victims of paramilitary shootings - twice the number recorded in the previous year - in 12 months, latest police statistics show.
There was also an increase in the number of casualties of paramilitary-style assaults, from 58 last year to 66 over the same period this year.
Loyalist paramilitary crime gangs were behind 56 of these casualties with the remaining 10 attributed to republican gangs, the PSNI said.
Over the last 12 months there have been:
The increase has led to urgent calls from police and church leaders for communities to help end these "barbaric" attacks.
Around 6% of the paramilitary-style attacks carried out last year were against people under 18.
"An attack against a person of any age, but particularly a child, is completely unacceptable in any society. This is child abuse and should not be tolerated by any rational person," Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton said.
"The people behind these attacks should be seen for what they are, hypocritical thugs trying to exert coercive control over communities by creating a climate of fear."
He appealed to communities not to ignore these attacks but to give information to the police.
"Our children deserve to be protected not punished," Det Supt Singleton continued.
He said police have made a number of arrests in recent weeks in connection with various paramilitary-style attacks.
Church leaders also joined together to call for an end to the scourge of paramilitary attacks.