Five injured in N.Ireland blast

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Three police officers and two soldiers have been injured in a blast bomb in Northern Ireland.

Police said a gang of nationalists attacked a patrol responding to an emergency call in one of Belfast's most volatile areas for sectarian clashes.

The attack happened at 4.30 a.m. GMT, when the device was thrown by a youth and exploded near the vehicles containing officers and troops.

None of the five needed hospital treatment, a spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed.

He told the UK's Press Association news agency: "A nationalist hostile crowd attacked security forces until assistance arrived. There were no arrests."

Sectarian clashes have in Northern Ireland have risen in profile in recent months since protestant demonstrations outside a catholic school.

The protestants accused catholics of smashing windows as they walked down protestant roads to the Holy Cross catholic school and violently demanded the children and their families find a different route to school.

This month gunmen smashed car awindows at a second Catholic school -- Our Lady of Mercy School - in a predominantly protestant area.

Thousands, from both faiths, marched in protest against the continuing sectarian violence after the shooting of catholic postman Danny McColgan two weeks ago.

In Belfast some schools closed so children could join the demonstration and in Omagh, scene of the Real IRA bombing in 1998, pleas were made for paramilitaries from both sides of the fence to disband.

But on Friday a cache of arms was found at a catholic home in Belfast. Four people were arrested.