Police in Belfast have arrested four men and one woman in relation to a number of hate crime across the city.

The four separate incidents occurred in the last 24 hours.

At around 8.30pm yesterday, police arrested a 70-year-old man on suspicion of threats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon in the Westland Road area of North Belfast.

In a separate incident in the early hours of this morning, police arrested a 39-year-old man and a 37 year old woman in the Donegal Road area after a woman in a takeaway restaurant was reportedly racially abused by a group of people and had food thrown at her.

At around 1am, Police arrested a 51-year-old man on suspicion of common assault and disorderly behaviour, after receiving a report that the man had tried to gain access to a restaurant at Castle Place and was aggressive and racially abusive to staff.

While at around 1.30am, police arrested a 22-year-old man on suspicion of common assault in the Lisburn Road area following a report that a woman was punched, spat at and verbally abused. This incident is being treated as a sectarian hate crime.