Babies rescued seconds before car bomb explosion at police station

Two babies were rescued by officers just seconds before a bomb exploded in a car parked near a police station.

Residents in Dunmurry, west Belfast were evacuated from their homes last night after a gas cylinder device was found to have been placed in the boot of a delivery vehicle.

After spotting the vehicle abandoned outside the police station after 10.50pm, officers activated the facility’s ‘attack alarm’.

Two babies were being taken to safety just as the car bomb went off, sending debris in all directions and engulfing the van in flames.

No-one was reported injured in the incident in what has been described as a ‘miraculous’ occurence.

An attempted murder investigation has been launched by counter-terrorism police.

The attack was universally condemned by political leaders in Northern Ireland.

First minister Michelle O’Neill said those behind the explosion ‘speak for absolutely no one’.

Deputy chief constable Bobby Singleton said: ‘Our thoughts today are with all those affected by this cowardly attack, the delivery driver for whom this will have been an extremely traumatic experience, residents who are still unable to return to their homes, our courageous officers and of course their families, who will be grateful their loved ones are safe, but will undoubtedly have been left shaken by the ordeal.

‘I want to reassure our community that the Police Service of Northern Ireland will not be deterred or distracted by last night’s senseless and reckless attack.

‘We’ve made great progress as a society and we won’t allow those who are intent on dragging us backward to succeed. Instead we’ll continue to work with our communities to protect them from harm.’

It comes a month after a pizza delivery driver was forced at gunpoint to use his vehicle to transport an explosive device to Lurgan police station.

The bomb failed to detonate but the incident was attributed to dissident republicans.

Mr Singleton acknowledged there were ‘similarities between the two incidents’ and that police were working under the belief that the ‘New IRA’ were behind the attack.

He added that the bomb placed outside Dunmurry police station, made up for its small size with its ‘recklessness’ and that officers were given no warning of the impending attack.

Brendan Mullan, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said the attack was planned to ’cause maximum harm’ in a residential area.

‘Such acts of violence have no place in a society committed to peace. We stand united in condemnation of those responsible for this terror, and in voicing support for the work of the officers and staff of the PSNI’, he said.

Liam Kelly, chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said the incident was ‘the definition of madness’ and had ’caused great upset and generated widespread and justifiable revulsion’.

He added those responsible were a ‘throwback to the dark ages of the Troubles’, referencing the region’s conflict prior to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

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