The police are investigating the incident

They were responding to an emergency call that children were trapped in a burning house on the loyalist Ballybeen estate at Dundonald.

The incident occurred just before 2100 BST on Thursday. The call was later declared to have been a hoax.

A few hours later, a number of petrol bombs were thrown at police near Dunlady Road, Dundonald.

The police said attempts were made to block a road at the junction of Dunlady Road and Davarr Avenue, causing some minor traffic disruption.

A petrol bomb and a brick were thrown through the windscreen of a lorry at about 0315 BST.

Tactics condemned

The incident also caused damage to traffic lights at the junction of the Upper Newtownards Road and Dunlady Road.

Police Superintendent Gordon Reid condemned the disturbances.

Referring to the hoax incidents, he said such tactics were "to be condemned in the strongest manner".

Earlier in the night, Great Victoria Street and Oxford Street in the centre of Belfast were cordoned off following reports that incendiary devices had been left.

They turned out to be hoaxes.

Meanwhile, Army technical officers were called to examine a suspicious object found at the back of a house in Parsonage Road in Kircubbin, County Down.

Police said it was a decommissioned hand grenade.