Northern Ireland's first minister, Peter Robinson, has said that Democratic Unionist colleagues Edwin Poots and Jeffrey Donaldson have received death threats.
Robinson said the police had informed them that their lives were in danger but he would not elaborate if the threats came from loyalists or republicans.
"The fact is that two of my senior members have been issued with a death threat," Robinson said on Tuesday night.
"The police have met with two senior members of my party to indicate that not only their lives, but the lives of their families are in danger.
"I view that very seriously and that's why – because it's happened to me in the past, it's happened to many of my colleagues in the past – I can empathise with the likes of Naomi Long who face that kind of threat."
Long, the Alliance party MP for East Belfast, received the threat following loyalist outrage at a council decision to limit the flying of the union flag at Belfast city hall.
So far there has been little violence compared to the last eight days of disorder following Belfast city council's decision to end the policy of flying the flag 365 days per year.
The Democratic Unionist party and Ulster Unionist party have both called on loyalist communities to end the violent protests, many of them directed at Alliance party members and several of their offices around Northern Ireland.
So far 28 police officers have been injured in the violence and 39 people, including three boys aged 13 to 15, have been arrested since last Monday.
Poots blamed dissident republicans angry at his stance that the flag should be flying. "It is not something that is new to them but it is something we will resist," he said.
Sinn Féin deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, said all threats against democratically elected representatives should be withdrawn immediately. "There is no justification for this type of intimidation from any grouping or organisation," he said.