Police in Northern Ireland put security measures in place on Sunday after a car bomb exploded near a police station on the outskirts of Belfast overnight. Residents of nearby homes were evacuated and police advised the public to avoid the affected area. There were no casualties in the incident. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AP agency.
- A bomb exploded near a police station in the suburbs of Belfast.
- The police introduced security measures and evacuated residents.
- No one was injured or killed in the incident.
- This is the second such attack in recent weeks.
Police official Brendan Mullan described the explosion in the township of Dunmurry as an attack, saying the explosive device was “intended to kill the officers and cause as much damage as possible” in the center of a residential area. He did not mention the motive for the attack, but he said it was a miracle that no one was seriously injured.
Politician Sorcha Eastwood, who represents the affected area as a member of the British Parliament, said the bomb went off at night outside the police station in a busy area with residential houses, small shops and many people.
This is not a single incident
“Those behind yesterday’s attack in Dunmurry speak for absolutely no one. They have no vision, no support and nothing to offer our society,” Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill said in response to Sunday’s explosion.
This is the second such incident in recent weeks. In March, police said a “primitive but functional” improvised explosive device was used in an attempted attack on a police station in the town of Lurgan, about 30 kilometers from Dunmurry. Masked men, one of whom was armed with a pistol, forced the courier to take the explosives to the station, according to AFP.
Dissident republican groups are believed to be behind the attempted attack in Lurgan, according to police. According to AFP, these are individuals and groups who support Irish reunification and do not recognize the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended the decades-long conflict. The agreement led to the disarmament of Irish republican and pro-British loyalist militant groups. Smaller splinter factions that reject the peace process still carry out sporadic attacks, AP wrote.
