PSNI treating attack on house in Belfast as racially motivated hate crime

A Syrian man has been forced to flee his south Belfast home after it was attacked on Wednesday.

The incident is being treated by police as a racially motivated hate crime.

The victim, Abdullah Almasri, told UTV he fears for his life.

Abdullah was watching television in his living room when bricks came through his window.

Mr Almasri said: "Enough, enough. We did not come here to make a fight, we just need to feel safe."

This latest attack comes as new figures show that there have been more than 130 hate crimes targeting Housing Executive tenants and staff over the last year. Twenty two of those in the first week of August 2024.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons and Grainia Long, head of the Housing Executive, met with frontline housing workers today, some of whom have had received death threats.

Mr Lyon's said: "Racism and Islamophobia are not something that we can change overnight. There is no switch that we can flick that can deal with this.

"What we are determined to do is to provide that leadership. To call out things that are clearly wrong and that clearly should not be happening and making sure that we are doing what we can to tackle the real issues that exist."

Ms Long said: "It is an issue that we will not be talking about a year from now but I think that if we are going to prevent this from happening, it is going to take strong leadership, on the ground and across communities.

"That is political leadership and most importantly, community leadership. It means us talking."

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