LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - European shares fell for a third straight session on Tuesday on investor jitters after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island and Ireland's bailout failed to calm markets.
At 0805 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.5 percent at 1,088.54 points after falling 0.8 percent in the previous session.
"There is a cocktail of concerns keeping investors occupied and Korea and Ireland are ahead in the list," said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"Asia is very much seen as the growth region. The one thing the markets don't want to see is any sort of war going on in that region."
Investors kept a close eye on Ireland, which began two weeks of political manoeuvring as the government dares the opposition to block an austerity budget on which a multi-billion euro EU/IMF bailout is riding. The markets are not convinced that aid to Ireland would prevent some other heavily indebted EU members from seeking help.
Miners featured among the top losers, tracking a sharp decline in metals prices on tensions in the Korean peninsula. The STOXX Europe basic resources index fell 1.3 percent, while BHP Billiton, Antofagasta and Xstrata fell 1.4 to 2.3 percent.
(Reporting by Atul Prakash; editing by Simon Jessop)