Rise in paramilitary attacks worrying

The Foyle DUP man was speaking after a brutal shooting in the Creggan area of the city earlier this week.

Following the attack, a Londonderry mother described her shock after watching the victim of the paramilitary-style attack crawl towards her front door after being shot in both ankles.

The incident took place in Culdaff Gardens, in the Creggan area of the city, on Monday night.

The mother, who asked not to be named, described her shock at opening her front door at around 10.30pm to find a man crawling up the street with gunshot wounds in his ankles.

“A car came up the street and then I heard gunshots,” she said. “I looked out and no-one seemed to be out in the street so I went out myself and the man was just crawling.

“I couldn’t believe it. The whole thing is mad. I just rang an ambulance for him and waited until it came along.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before. It’s all young children in this street. I couldn’t believe it when I saw him crawling. There didn’t seem to be a lot of blood at first but then I did see he was bleeding badly. I was shocked.

“You don’t want to see that in a street like this full of wee, young children. My children were in bed but this is the summer holidays and there could have been children out even at that time.”

DUP MLA Gary Middleton expressed concern at the rise in the number of recent incidents, saying: “Obviously this type of activity was never acceptable and people don’t want to see individuals taking the law into their own hands and they don’t want to see guns on the streets.

“Unfortunately it has now become more common that individuals take it upon themselves to inflict violence on other people. It has to be condemned.

“It certainly seems like there has been an increase and that is worrying. There is no doubt that there seems to be a rise in this type of activity. We thought this type of activity was confined to the past but unfortunately there seems to be some individuals. They need to be brought to justice.

“I would encourage anyone with information to contact the PSNI.”

Sinn Féin councillor Colly Kelly said the victim was a delivery man “going about his daily business”.

“While getting out of the car he was then jumped by four men, with iron bars. It then proceeded that he actually got shot,” said Mr Kelly.

“Now, from knowing the family and chatting to the family this morning, this is a quiet man...there really is disgust in the community because the people who know this man, know that he is just a family guy.”

A police spokesperson said four masked men were believed to be involved in the shooting.