Three pipe bombs have been defused following a series of security alerts in north Belfast.

The devices were defused by army bomb experts in the Hillview Road area on Thursday.

A man was also taken to hospital in Belfast on Thursday night after being wounded in a shooting attack.

The victim, aged in his 20s, suffered a gunshot wound to his right leg in the attack which was believed to have happened in Farringdon Court, Ballysillan, in north Belfast, shortly after 2100 BST.

Alerts

Democratic Unionist MP for the area Nigel Dodds, condemned those responsible for the pipe bombs.

He said they could easily have injured passers-by.

"If children or some innocent person had come across them it may well have caused injury," he said.

"Cleary it means they cannot now be used and the police are to be congratulated for making this find and making these devices safe."

The security forces were called to examine suspicious packages found between Sylvio Street and Cambrai Street.

Another suspicious object was discovered at the Oldpark junction with the Crumlin Road and at the junction of Danube Street and Tennent Street.

A number of items were taken away for forensic examination.

The security alerts happened ahead of the nightly loyalist protests on the Crumlin Road at Cambrai Street.