18 July 2010 Last updated at 12:31 ET

Strabane taxi driver shot in both legs

A taxi driver has been shot in both legs after being attacked and dragged from his car in Strabane.

It is understood he called to pick up a fare in the Glebe Gardens area at around 2300 BST.

He was taken from his car by a number of men, beaten and shot once in the left thigh. When he tried to escape, he was shot again in the right leg.

He is currently being treated in hospital where he is in a stable but not life-threatening condition.

Strabane councillor Gerard Foley, who works with the victim, said the attackers had "done their homework".

He added: "It was well planned because they booked it at one o'clock on Friday to be there for 11 o'clock on Saturday. Everything was done to a tee.

"A man asked me last night 'Is this Beirut, because there seems to be nothing round here but shootings?'"

MP for West Tyrone, Pat Doherty, Sinn Fein, said: "The people of the Glebe and the wider Strabane area will be abhorred by last night's shooting of a taxi driver in the Glebe and want to see an immediate end to such brutal actions."

Mr Doherty said there had been at least 10 shooting and pipe bomb attacks in recent months.

"The Strabane area, like every other urban area, has its social problems.

"But those behind these attacks are deluding themselves if they think attacking people and their property in this small geographical area is going to eradicate any of the social problems that we have in wider society."

The attackers drove off in the man's car, a dark coloured 7-seater, which was found a short time later on Orchard Road.

Police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.