Bus hijacked and set on fire near Belfast loyalist estate

A bus was hijacked and set on fire at a loyalist estate on the outskirts of Belfast last night.

Four masked men boarded the double-decker at an entrance to the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, at about 7.45pm and ordered the driver and passengers off.

After they fled the vehicle, the bus was set alight.

It comes less than a week after another bus was hijacked and burned last week in the same town.

Stormont infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon said: “Buses are paid for & owned by the people of Northern Ireland.

“What does this madness achieve?”

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