Man shot dead in 'barbaric' west Belfast attack

A 43-year-old man has been shot dead at a house in west Belfast.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the shooting had taken place at Glenwood Court in the Poleglass area.

Sinn Fein's Jennifer McCann MLA said: "This brutal killing has achieved nothing other than plunging another family into grief and despair.

"I have expressed my condolences to the victim's family and appeal to anyone with information to bring it forward to the police."

Alex Atwood MLA, of the SDLP, said: "I completely condemn the latest barbaric attack on a man in west Belfast.

"These savage assaults had no place in our past and they have no place in our society today."

The murder follows two paramilitary-style shootings earlier this week, one in west Belfast, the other in Dungiven, County Londonderry.

On Sunday night, a 56-year-old man was shot several times in the leg at Glenwood Drive in Poleglass.

Two days later, a 22-year-old man was abducted from Derry, shot in the leg and left wounded on a roadside near Hass Park in Dungiven.

Security sources say the shootings bear the hallmarks of so-called "punishment attacks" and appear linked to one of the dissident republican groups.