A clear-up operation has been taking place in north Belfast after a series of attacks and disturbances in the area.

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 on Wednesday.

A police patrol in the loyalist Glenbryn area heard a number of shots.

A follow up search operation by the police recovered crates of bottles and petrol bombs.

Martin Morgan: "Communities must be protected"

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

Two pipe bombs were discovered, one in an alleyway, the other in the back yard of a house in the adjoining nationalist Alliance Avenue.

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

There were also attacks on homes in the Oldpark area.

Paint was thrown at them and windows broken.

One householder said it was the eighteenth attack in two years, the last just two weeks ago.

"The windows haven't even been in a week because it is only two weeks ago we were attacked and now we will have to go and do the same thing all over again," he said.

DUP councillor Nelson McCausland said the attacks appeared to be co-ordinated.

'Nervous'

"There is nothing particularly random or spur of the moment about them," he said.

"On both sides they are well organised and orchestrated and obviously organisations are doing this. These things don't just happen of their own accord."

The SDLP's Martin Morgan said he wanted the police to be more pro-active.

These things don't just happen of their own accord

Nelson McCausland DUP councillor

"They must give out a very strong message," he said.

"As well as community and political initiatives, you must tie in the protection of the communities and the prosecution of the perpetrators."

The army also dealt with a suspicious object on North Queen Street.

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.

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.