Police in the North believe shots fired at police station and a hostage-taking incident in Co Antrim are linked.
A couple and three children were held hostage at their home on the Craigstown Road, Randallstown, at 8 p.m, when four or five masked men, some armed, locked them in a room and demanded the keys to a van.
The family were held for two-and-a-half hours while some members of the gang took the vehicle.
At around 10 p.m. shots were fired at Randallstown Police Station from a passing van. Four bullet holes were found at the station gates.
Members of the hostage gang returned to the family home at around 10.30 p.m. and all left in a van later found burnt out on the Creggan Road in the town.
The couple and their children were unhurt but "badly shaken", police said.
