The violent feud between warring loyalist paramilitary groups last night claimed its fourth fatality within five days when a man in his twenties was shot dead in a housing estate on the outskirts of north Belfast.

The violent feud between warring loyalist paramilitary groups last night claimed its fourth fatality within five days when a man in his twenties was shot dead in a housing estate on the outskirts of north Belfast.

He was with his girlfriend in a first-floor flat in the Protestant Rathcoole area when two gunmen burst in and shot him. A family living in the flat below narrowly escaped when bullets passed through their flat.

The security forces immediately stepped up patrols in Rathcoole and north Belfast to try to prevent more reprisal attacks in the feud raging between the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association.

Dissident republicans were also active yesterday, injuring a police reservist in a boobytrap bomb attack in Castlewellan, Co Down. The officer was critically ill in hospital last night after suffering serious leg injuries in the explosion.