Police in Northern Ireland condemned the car bomb attack on a police station on Sunday as an attempt to undermine the 1998 agreement that brought peace to the region, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The bomb, made from a compressed gas cylinder, exploded as police evacuated nearby residents in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of Belfast, yesterday evening, Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told reporters.
“It clearly shows that what this type of device may have lacked in sophistication and scale, it made up for in reckless unpredictability,“ Singleton said.
“It is idiotic for such a device to be used against police and in such close proximity to the public. It was absolute madness“, he stressed.
The incident happened at around 10.30pm (local time, ed.) after the attackers stopped a delivery driver, planted a makeshift bomb in his vehicle and ordered him to go to the police station, Singleton explained.
Brendon Mullan, chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Board, said the device “was sent to kill officers and cause maximum damage in an attack, in the heart of a residential area“.
“The people have spoken when they overwhelmingly supported the Good Friday Agreement“, Mullan said.
“Such acts of violence have no place in a society committed to peace. "We stand united in condemning those responsible for this terror and in expressing our support for the work of the officers and staff of the Police Service of Northern Ireland," he said.
This was the second such incident at a police station in recent weeks.
On March 30, police foiled an attack on a police station in Lurgan, about 20 miles southwest of Dunmurry. Two masked men stopped a delivery driver, planted an explosive device in the boot of his vehicle and forced him at gunpoint to bring the device to the police station, authorities said. Police carried out a controlled explosion after around 100 houses were evacuated.
The attack in Lurgan was likely carried out by dissident republican groups in a “pathetic attempt to incite fear,“ police said.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement largely ended decades of violence involving republican groups opposed to British rule and others who wanted to maintain the region's ties with the United Kingdom. Dissident groups opposed to the peace process still carry out sporadic attacks.