A hatchet has been thrown through the window of a Nigerian family's home in central Belfast in a suspected racist attack.

The attack on a woman and her two children happened in the loyalist Sandy Row area close to the city centre at around 2am on Wednesday morning.

It is the second such assault in the city in just over a month after a house where two Nigerian men lived in east Belfast came under attack.

In the latest incident Adenike Yisa was on the sofa in the living room at the front of her home when a hatchet was smashed through it.

"I was really, really upset," she said. "I have never been in that situation in my life. I only moved into that house about a year ago and never had any trouble.

"When I heard the noise I thought it was a shot, then I saw the axe or hatchet and the big hole in my window. I was screaming at the top of my voice and shaking like a leaf. Luckily my children were in their rooms.

"I didn't see whoever did this, but think it was because of the colour of my skin," the 40-year-old said.