Police are treating an arson attack in County Antrim as a racially-motivated hate crime.
Six vehicles were set alight and destroyed in the Lisnevenagh Road area of Ballymena on Sunday night.
The landowner has told News NI he is the victim of an “online hate campaign”, following the attack at his property.
Police are appealing to anyone who might have any information to assist them.
Sam Carson is a farmer and landlord who was rents a house to six Filipino men who are employed by a large nearby business.
He thinks the attack is related to his decision to house Filipinos.
Mr Carson said they have lived in the house for two years, and he described them as “peaceful people, working hard”.
Speaking to News NI he said he had never experienced any trouble, until the Ballymena riots in June.
“Since the riots, we’ve had a hate campaign on TikTok, against myself and against my tenants, but thought nothing of it.
“Some people in Ballymena do not like foreign nationals, even though they are good working people, they don’t understand that.”
He added: “Social media has a real problem with misinformation, and there seems there is nothing the police can do.”
One of the Filipino victims, who didn’t want to be named, spoke to News NI about the ordeal.
“I didn’t expect this, I was just planning on getting some sleep and going to work tomorrow.
“This has never happened before. We’ve lived here for about two and a half years.”
Confused by the attack the man said he “didn’t know we had enemies here”.
“We didn’t come here for any reason, Filipinos are in every country, just for work, we are not illegal, we pay tax.
“Please don’t attack us personally, we can fix everything in a peaceful way.”
A police spokesperson said: “We received a report at around 10.10pm that six vehicles had been set alight and were destroyed.
“Our enquiries are ongoing and, at this time, we are treating this as arson with a racially-motivated hate element.
“We are appealing to anyone who might have any information which may assist us, to get in touch.”
On Thursday three homes in north Belfast were attacked.
A house lived in by a woman and her two children, aged 12 and 14, had the living room window smashed and graffiti saying ‘locals only’ was daubed on walls
Another house on Manor Street and one in nearby Summerhill Court, were also damaged.
Police are investigating a potential link between all three incidents.
And on Saturday a window was smashed and graffiti daubed on the wall of a property in the Killaughey Road area of Donaghadee in County Down.
A woman and her three young children were in the property at the time of the attack, which police have said was racially motivated.
