A search operation is being carried out in north Belfast following reports of shots being fired during overnight violence.

A police patrol heard gunfire coming from the Glenbryn area of Ardoyne in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Crates containing bottles and petrol bombs have been recovered.

About 150 people were involved in the trouble when loyalists and nationalists clashed on the Ardoyne Road at the junction of Alliance Avenue at about 0230 BST.

Army technical experts defused two hoax devices during the violence.

I find it absolutely disgusting that somebody can just come along and do this

Cliftondene Park resident

There has been trouble in interface areas in the north of the city over several months.

Petrol bombs were thrown at houses and two pipe bombs were discovered in an alleyway.

At one point, homes had to be evacuated as army technical experts defused the devices.

Sinn Fein Councillor Margaret McClenaghan said tensions in the area were running high.

"People went in to see what was happening and they discovered two unexploded pipe bombs in the alleyway between the houses," she said.

"People here are very, very tense, they are very nervous."

There were also reports of paint being thrown at houses in the Cliftondene Park area.

Safety measures

One Catholic family said it was the second such attack in three weeks.

"We are bearing up as best we can," said the householder.

"This is our home, it has been our home for 27 years and I find it absolutely disgusting that somebody can just come along and do this."

SDLP councillor for the area Martin Morgan said he visited the family whose home has been attacked eight times in the past year.

Martin Morgan: "No one has ever been arrested for these attacks"

"The people who carried out the attacks on her house last night were not in fast moving cars, they were on foot hundreds of yards from their own district and they got back to their own district safely," he said.

"Out of those eight attacks in the past year, no-one has ever been arrested, no-one has ever been prosecuted."

DUP councillor Nelson McCausland said political action needed to be taken in north Belfast

"We have people in government at the highest level both in the Northern Ireland Executive and the Northern Ireland Office who run away from hard decisions," he said.

"We had a whole winter of negotiations and consultations and we still have not seen the principle community safety measures that were promised at Ardoyne."

Meanwhile in North Queen Street, what appeared to be a fire extinguisher was thrown from the window of a car.

Local residents said they feared that it contained explosives.

A car was hijacked on the Old Cavehill Road and there were also attacks on homes in Cliftondene Crescent, Cliftondene Park, the Oldpark Road and Alliance Avenue.