6 December 2012 Last updated at 06:16 ET 
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
Michael and Christine Bower tell BBC Newsline's Nicola Weir about the attack
The leader of Northern Ireland's Alliance Party, David Ford, has called attacks on his party's offices and councillors an "assault on democracy".
A loyalist mob set fire to an office in Carrickfergus and the home of two councillors in Bangor was attacked on Wednesday night.
It is part of an ongoing series of loyalist protests over the union flag.
Mr Ford said if people were called onto the streets in a "charged atmosphere violence is almost inevitable".
Mr Ford, who is also the Stormont Justice Minister, said police are monitoring social media with a view to prosecuting anyone involved in organising violence.
Four police officers were injured during loyalist violence linked to Belfast City Council's decision to stop flying the union flag every day in the County Antrim town of Carrickfergus.
Mr Ford said: "There are certainly people who have been posting messages on social media which amount to incitement to hatred, incitement to commit criminal offences such as arson and that is being monitored (by the police service).
"It is up to them to consider the issue of what charges may or may not be appropriate and up to the Public Prosecution Service to then follow that through."
Mr Ford has requested the Northern Ireland Assembly be recalled on Thursday to discuss the attacks. This has been backed by the SDLP's Pat Ramsey.
On Wednesday, two Alliance Party offices and the home of a couple, who are both Alliance councillors, were attacked.
Earlier, about 1,500 people gathered in Carrickfergus to protest over the flag decision.
Continue reading the main story Alliance are saying the two main unionist parties have to bear responsibilities.
Sammy Wilson, DUP, said the people involved in the violence did a disservice to the flag they were supposedly trying to protect.
Mike Nesbitt, UUP, talked about unionism needing brains not brawn.
But it didn't take long before we had cantankerous exchanges between them.
Sammy Wilson heard Alliance leader David Ford, effectively accusing him of hypocrisy.
He came back with this assertion that Alliance should have known that opening this Pandora's box would lead to something like this and if they didn't they were out of touch.
The crowd dispersed but some people stayed behind, trouble broke out and missiles, bottles and masonry were thrown at police.
Rioting continued in nearby West Street, where Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson has a constituency office.
It was ransacked and the rioters tried to set it on fire. The building was smoke damaged.
Mr Dickson said he had received hundreds of calls and texts from people across the country who were "sickened by the violence".
Police fired a number of baton rounds at the crowd. They said a number of officers were injured in the riot but their injuries were not thought to be life threatening.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr said the protest was organised through social networking sites.
"What we saw in Carrickfergus was the result of bringing large numbers of people out onto the street where we can't control those large numbers of people," he said.
Two men and two women have been arrested. A 20-year-old woman is due to appear in court on Thursday.
Assembly call The home of a couple who are both Alliance Party councillors in Bangor, County Down, was also attacked.
Paint was thrown at Michael and Christine Bower's home, smashing a front window close to where their 17-month old daughter daughter normally plays. No-one was injured.
Mr Bower said he was sitting in his living room at about 23:00 GMT on Wednesday when the attack happened. The device shattered a pane in the double-glazed window of the front living room.
"There is damage to the window, but it could so easily have been so much worse. If events had been different, a young life could have been lost. I would plead with people to calm down and to stop attacking representatives doing their best to support their communities," he said.
North Down Alliance MLA Stephen Farry said there was an attempted arson attack on his constituency office in Bangor.
"Petrol or some other accelerant was poured over my shutters by a number of people," he said.
"Fortunately, they were interrupted by a passing police patrol and fled the scene."
'Brains, not brawn' DUP MP Sammy Wilson condemned the attack in Carrickfergus, which he said was "morally wrong, legally wrong and politically wrong".
"I have made it quite clear that to engage in protest is one thing, to engage in violence is another," he said.
"If people believe they cannot contain a protest and it is going to turn to violence then they shouldn't do it."
However, he claimed that "Sinn Fein and the SDLP had poked at the sectarian fires in the last number of months".
He added that the "Alliance Party ought to have known that by helping them in doing that in Belfast they were going to create a problem".
"For the last number of months, Sinn Fein and the SDLP have been poking the hornet's nest with sectarian bigotry in Newry and Armagh where they named a play park after a killer; in Dungannon, where they called for the person who attempted to kill a councillor to be released from jail, and then raised the issue of the flags which they knew would open all of these tensions in Belfast City Council and the Alliance Party aided and abetted them in Belfast City Council," he added.
"That's the context and anyone knowing what was happening on the ground in Northern Ireland could not have been surprised that a Pandora's box was being opened."
Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt MLA also condemned the violence.
He said: "What unionism needs today is brains, not brawn. We need an analysis, a strategy and an agreed outcome. I am happy to talk to anyone, if they commit to repent and desist from violence."
Jim Allister of TUV said the violence was "utterly wrong" and was not the way forward.
A loyalist flag protest also took place in Lurgan.
Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
Read the terms and conditions
