Fire engines have been damaged in attacks on crews

On Tuesday, the Fire Bridge Union accused the government of under reporting such incidents.

Five separate attacks on fire crews across Northern Ireland at the weekend left one firefighter injured and a fire engine damaged.

Angela Smith described the accusation as "blatantly untrue".

She urged firefighters to make sure all attacks were brought to the attention of the authorities.

"If that is the case, I really would urge those firefighters who report the cases to make sure that the reports are accurate, because the report themselves come from firefighters out on the ground," she said.

"They report them to headquarters and I get the figures from them."

FBU spokesman Jim Barbour claimed Ms Smith's statistics on attacks did not match those held by the fire service.