A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the Dunmurry area of south Belfast late on Saturday after a delivery vehicle was hijacked and the driver forced to take it to the site, Northern Ireland police said on Sunday.
The attack is the latest in a series of sporadic attempts by militant groups that continue to target police officers, decades after a peace deal largely ended sectarian violence in the region.
The car was hijacked in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast shortly after 10:50 p.m. (2150 GMT) on Saturday and a gas cylinder device was placed in the trunk, police said. The man was ordered to drive the vehicle to Dunmurry police station, Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told a news conference.
The vehicle was abandoned outside the front of the station, prompting police to activate an alarm and evacuate nearby homes, Singleton said.
The force has launched an attempted murder investigation led by its Terrorism Investigation Unit.
‘SENSELESS AND RECKLESS’ ATTACK
“A number of residents, including two babies, were being taken to safety by officers when the device exploded, engulfing the vehicle in flames and sending debris in all directions,” he said.
No-one was injured in the blast, which police described as “nothing short of miraculous” given the circumstances. Singleton described the attack as “senseless and reckless” and said the delivery driver had been left extremely traumatised.
Britain’s minister for the region Hilary Benn condemned the attack, calling it “shameless and cowardly.”
Police said an evacuation operation was still under way in the area and some residents remained unable to return to their homes.
While a 1998 peace deal largely ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, police officers are still occasionally targeted by small splinter groups of mostly nationalist militants opposed to Britain’s rule in the region.
Singleton said the terror threat in Northern Ireland remained “substantial”, adding the blast underscored the “murderous intent and capability” of militant groups that continue to target police officers.