A car bomb attack outside a Belfast police station which aimed to kill officers is thought to be the work of the New IRA, police have said.
The explosion in Dunmurry, southwest of the Northern Irish capital, took place at around 10.50pm on Saturday after a ‘gas cylinder-type device’ was placed in a delivery driver’s hijacked car and driven to the location.
Two babies were among residents evacuated when the car bomb detonated, sending debris across the street.
It came weeks after another attempted bombing, when the device failed to explode outside a police station in the nearby town of Lurgan, with paramilitary group the New IRA claiming responsibility for that attack.
So-called dissident republicans are pro-united Ireland individuals and groups who do not accept the landmark 1998 peace deal that largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict known as the ‘Troubles’.
‘There are very many similarities between the two incidents and… our early working hypothesis is that this may well be the work of the New IRA,’ deputy chief constable Bobby Singleton of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.
Investigators will ‘keep an open mind’ and ‘it’s still the very early stages of the investigation’, he added.
But it likely showed that ‘murderous intent and capability’ still exists within paramilitaries in the UK territory, he noted.
A car bomb attack outside a Belfast police station which aimed to kill officers is thought to be the work of the New IRA, police have said
The explosion in Dunmurry, southwest of the Northern Irish capital, took place at around 10.50pm on Saturday
‘Police personnel immediately – and I have to say, extremely courageously, literally running into danger, placing themselves in harm’s way – evacuated nearby homes in order to protect the community,’ he said.
The PSNI’s terrorism investigation unit has launched an attempted murder investigation.
Writing on X, Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘I utterly condemn last night’s attack on Dunmurry police station,’ adding that those responsible would be brought to justice.
Videos circulated on social media showing the vehicle on fire at the police station around midnight.
Fire crews and police worked to put out the blaze.
Politicians have denounced the incident, with Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill, from the pro-Irish unity Sinn Fein party, saying those behind the attack ‘speak for absolutely no one’.
She wrote: ‘Those behind last night’s attack in Dunmurry speak for absolutely no one. They have no vision, no support, and have nothing to offer our society. Our communities deserve peace.
‘No one is going to deny our young people and future generations that. We will keep progressing and we will keep moving forward to a better future.’
Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, called the incident ‘deeply concerning’.
‘If this was another attempt by dissident republicans to intimidate communities and target the police, then it must be met with the full force of the law,’ he said.
Two babies were among residents evacuated when the car bomb detonated, sending debris across the street
Dissident republican groups are smaller than the Provisional IRA, which ended its violent campaign in 2005, but have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in past attacks.
The New IRA is the largest republican groups opposing British presence in Northern Ireland.
The group have carried out multiple attacks against the British Army and the PSNI.
They took responsibility for the murder of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot in the head in Derry in 2019, and for the attempted murder of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in Omagh in 2023.