Ballymoney: Community 'deeply shocked' by church arson attack

The fire at Our Lady and St Patrick's Catholic Church was extinguished by the local parish priest Fr Damian McCaughan before the police arrived at the scene

The community in Ballymoney is "deeply shocked" by an arson attack on a church, a parish priest has said.

The police received a report shortly after 21:45 GMT on Sunday that the side door of Our Lady and St Patrick's Catholic Church in the Castle Street area of the town had been set alight.

The fire was extinguished by the local parish priest Fr Damian McCaughan before the police arrived at the scene.

Fr McCaughan told BBC News NI he is thankful the fire did not spread.

"This is something that we can't really believe has happened," Fr McCaughan said.

"The whole community, including our parishioners, are deeply shocked and surprised that this has still actually happened."

Fr McCaughan said the person or people who committed this attack are welcome to come into their church and say a prayer ,which he said would be a better use of their time than committing this sort of act.

The fire was extinguished by Fr Damian McCaughan after the alarm was raised

The priest said he was alerted to the blaze late on Sunday evening and was able to extinguish the fire before it spread to other areas of the church.

"I am just thankful the damage is relatively minor and we aren't looking at anything worse".

The church thanked the police for attending the scene promptly and encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

In a separate incident, a shop in Enniskillen was damaged overnight in what police are treating as arson.

Police said that at about 03:00 GMT on Monday, it was reported that a man had approached the shop in the Cornagrade Road area and smashed the front window with a hammer.

The man then lit a device and threw it inside.

Officers attended and managed to extinguish the flames before major damage was caused, police added.

The man then made off in the direction of Kilmacormick Road.