A car bomb exploded outside a Belfast police station in a shocking incident believed to be orchestrated by the New IRA.
Footage from an officer’s body camera captures the moment as the officer approaches the Dunmurry police station, located southwest of Belfast, when a sudden blast from a parked white car shakes the area.
The explosion, occurring around 10:50 p.m. last Saturday, involved a ‘gas cylinder-type device’ placed inside a delivery driver’s hijacked vehicle, which was then driven to the scene.
In a terrifying aftermath, debris scattered across the street as residents, including two infants, were evacuated due to the car bomb detonation.
The delivery driver was coerced into transporting the explosive device to the intended location after his vehicle was seized.
This attack follows a similar incident weeks earlier, where a bomb failed to detonate outside a police station in Lurgan. The New IRA took responsibility for that attempted bombing.
‘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.
The body-worn footage shows an officer walking towards the station in Dunmurry, southwest of the Northern Irish capital, before a powerful blast from a white car
The explosion 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
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
But it likely showed that ‘murderous intent and capability’ still exists within paramilitaries in the UK territory, he noted.
Speaking on Monday, northern Ireland’s police chief Jon Boutcher called it a ‘deliberate, reckless and stupid attack’.
He praised the bravery of officers who ‘rushed towards danger’ to evacuate family close to the station.
He said the bombers were ‘mindless idiots’ and urged anyone with information to contact the PSNI ‘before these people actually harm or kill somebody’.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the bomb had put people’s lives at risk and ‘showed a blatant disregard for the local community’.
She said it was an ‘extremely terrifying ordeal’ for the delivery driver.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly said she was ‘absolutely appalled’ by the bombing.
She added: ‘It is vitally important that we send a very clear message this morning that we stand shoulder to shoulder in clear and unequivocal condemnation of this 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’.
Videos circulated on social media over the weekend showed the vehicle on fire at the police station around midnight.
Fire crews and police worked to put out the blaze.
Writing on X on Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘I utterly condemn last night’s attack on Dunmurry police station,’ adding that those responsible would be brought to justice.
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Two babies were among residents evacuated when the car bomb detonated, sending debris across the street
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.
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.
