Two former members of the security forces in Northern Ireland received death threats from the Real IRA, it was claimed today.

The pair served in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and live in mid-Ulster.

Last week DUP South Antrim MP William McCrea also received a safety warning from police.

His son Ian, DUP Assembly member for Mid-Ulster, said: "I have been informed of death threats against two former members of the UDR who have been told that dissident republicans are plotting to kill them.

"These are two brave men who served their country during the worst days of Northern Ireland's troubled past.

"For these dissident republican criminals to target two innocent men in this manner is an extremely serious state-of-affairs."

He called for a robust and hard-hitting security response.

"The police need to be given all the support and resources that they need to eliminate the dissident republican threat.

"Furthermore, this latest spate of death threats calls into question the sense or otherwise of removing people's capacity to protect themselves with a personal protection weapon."

Earlier this year two soldiers and a policeman were shot dead by dissident republicans.

William McCrea said police passed on the message to his wife at home on Tuesday and he received it from her on Thursday as he had been in Westminster.

He said he would be foolish not to take the danger seriously but attacked the police for bringing the message to his door without an envelope so his wife could see it and failing to contact him directly.

Ian McCrea added: "Growing up in a family where a member was under threat of death and having narrowly escaped an IRA attempt on my life, I know exactly the pain and stress that such threats cause to innocent people.

"I would urge the entire community to co-operate with the police to ensure that the dissident threat is extinguished forever."

A police spokesman said they do not discuss the security of individuals.