In one of the most shocking racist attacks, two men broke into the home of a young Chinese couple.

The wife, eight months pregnant, was beaten. Her husband was left with a fractured skull after he was hit in the face with a brick.

Earlier this year a proposal for a Chinese community centre in a Protestant area of Belfast - where support is strong for the province being ruled by Britain - was scrapped amid threats and objections from the local community.

Hong Kong native Anna Lo, chief executive of the Chinese Welfare Association, said local opposition had concerned them. 'But also then we heard about threats from the local paramilitary group saying that if we went against local wishes the building would be torched.'

During the tension over the community centre the association's office was vandalised.

Some opponents of the community centre, proposed for a street called Donegall Pass, distributed a leaflet entitled Yellow Invasion, which called on residents to rid the community of Chinese immigrants.

'The Chinese only take from our community and provide nothing for it,' the leaflet declared.

It even claimed that the Chinese community harmed the area more than attacks by Catholic republican groups such as the IRA, who support a united Ireland.

'The influx of the yellow people into Donegall Pass has done more damage than 35 years of the IRA's recent campaign of republican propaganda and violence,' it said.

A new site has been found for the community centre, but #17,000 ($253,000) had already been spent on designs and planning for the Donegall Pass project, according to Ms Lo.

In addition to violent attacks, harassment and verbal abuse are common. Elderly Chinese residents in Donegall Pass have told Ms Lo they stay indoors after 3pm when the schools close.

'The kids just follow them, hassle them, throw things at them,' Ms Lo said. 'One elderly man told us that even at the height of the summer he wears three layers of clothing. He said: 'If not I would be soaked to the skin because the kids throw water bombs at me'.'

Members of the province's terrorist organisations have been involved in some racist attacks, but police cannot say for certain that the actions have been ordered by the paramilitaries' leaders.

The inflow of immigrants since the terrorist ceasefires began a decade ago has unnerved many locals. '[Racism] has increased dramatically because of the sudden increase in ethnic minority people coming here because of peace,' Ms Lo said.

Yet more than 99 per cent of the province's 1.7 million people are white, according to the latest census in 2001.

Despite the ceasefires many immigrants unwittingly find themselves caught up in Northern Ireland's political quagmire. Most town and city housing estates are still exclusively Protestant or exclusively Catholic - the two communities rarely live together.

So an issue such as the building of a Chinese community centre is seen as ceding ground to outsiders and a loss of control for one side or the other. The benefits of a new community centre - which could be used by everyone - are ignored.

'Unfortunately, because of the conflict, both sides of the community always see these as zero sum games,' said the executive director of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, Patrick Yu Chung-yin, who is also from Hong Kong. 'So that's why everyone is the loser.'

Mr Yu was at the centre of a row in Hong Kong after he was named director of operations of the Equal Opportunities Commission and was sacked before he could take up the post.

For the year ending last March, 453 racist incidents, ranging from verbal abuse to attacks, were recorded by the police - double the previous year's figure. Of those, 103 were physical assaults and 148 homes were attacked - both more than double the previous year's levels. For the six months to September 299 racist incidents were recorded.

Reported racist incidents have been concentrated more in Protestant areas than Catholic districts.

But the figures may be misleading in terms of suggesting Protestants are less tolerant of immigrants. First, more immigrants live in Protestant areas due to greater availability of housing. Second, the police have greater difficulty operating in Catholic areas where they are seen as an arm of the British government. As a result, more racial incidents go unreported.

'If you looked at the statistics it would suggest that there are low levels of racist incidents in nationalist areas and I can certainly tell you that there are incidents in nationalist areas. But again it is difficult saying how many because at times people aren't coming forward,' said Inspector Robin Dempsey of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Under-reporting of racist incidents to the police in both Protestant and Catholic areas has been a huge problem. People from ethnic minorities believe the police are uninterested in racial offences.

'People, particularly from the Chinese community, have been very critical of the police for what they perceive to be a lack of action,' Inspector Dempsey said.

The police have stepped up communication with representatives of ethnic minorities in a bid to convince people they are serious about tackling racist attacks. Interpreter services have been set up to make it easier for people with weak English to report offences. The police believe part of the surge in racial incidents is due to their efforts to increase reporting of these offences.

However, victims of assault or abuse are also reluctant to report and prosecute crimes for fear of intimidation where they live. Such concerns are also thought to prevent witnesses to racist attacks from coming forward to help police investigations.

A police campaign in South Belfast - where many of the racist attacks have occurred - to encourage people to come forward with information yielded few results. Despite 29,000 homes receiving leaflets appealing for information only 'one or two people' came forward, according to Inspector Dempsey.

Despite the increase in police action, Ms Lo believes they should do more. 'They need to double their effort because we are just not happy sitting [and] watching racial incidents go up and up,' she said.