LAST UPDATE | 4 hrs ago

A CAR WHICH exploded outside a police station on the outskirts of Belfast over the weekend had been “hijacked” and the New IRA is believed to be responsible, senior police in the region have said.

Political leaders from across the island have united to condemn the incident, which resulted in the evacuation of nearby homes, including two babies.

It is also the second such car bomb incident in recent weeks, after a delivery driver was forced at gunpoint to transport the device to Lurgan police station in an incident blamed on dissident republicans. The device did not explode on that occasion.

Addressing the latest incident yesterday, PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the car was hijacked shortly after 10.50pm on Saturday in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast and a gas cylinder device was placed in the boot.

“What this type of device may have lacked in terms of its sophistication and scale, it more than made up for in its reckless unpredictability,” Singleton told a press conference at PSNI headquarters in Belfast.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill said those behind the attack have 'no vision' or support. Niall Carson / PA Niall Carson / PA / PA

Asked whether the attack was linked to a similar incident at Lurgan Police Station in March, Singleton noted that it is “now the second attack of this nature” in just a month.

“There are very many similarities between the two incidents, and as a consequence of that, our early working hypothesis is that this may well be the work of the New IRA who claimed responsibility for the attack in Lurgan.”

Singleton outlined how police have learned that a male delivery driver was ordered to drive the car to Dunmurry Police Station in the Kingsway area and abandon it outside, causing police to activate the station’s attack alarm.

“Police officers immediately and courageously ran into danger, placing themselves in harm’s way, and evacuated nearby homes to protect the community,” Singleton said.

“A number of residents, including two babies, were being taken to safety by officers when the device exploded, engulfing the vehicle in flames and sending debris in all directions.

“Thanks to the swift actions of police, no-one has been injured, which is nothing short of miraculous.”

‘Desperate bunch of no hopers’

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland programme, Police Federation for Northern Ireland chair Liam Kelly called the incident the result of “another fruitless and reckless act by a desperate bunch of no hopers”.

Kelly said that his PSNI colleagues “put themselves in danger to protect the public” and that it was “only through the grace of God that we don’t have anybody injured” as a result of the incident.

“You don’t arrive at the gates of a police station without with a bomb in a car for any other reason but to cause mayhem and carnage,” Kelly said.

Political condemnation

Defence Minister Helen McEntee called it “cowardly and reckless” and criticised it for endangering the lives of the public as well as PSNI officers.

Locally, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill said those behind the attack have “no vision” and “nothing to offer our society”, while the DUP’s Gavin Robinson said that if it was an attempt to intimidate communities and target the police, then it “must be met with the full force of the law.”

SDLP MLA and leader of the Stormont Opposition Matthew O’Toole posted on X that the explosion at Dunmurry was hugely distressing for residents and for police officers.

“For the rest of us it is a reminder there are people, however few, who still want to use violence to drag us to a dark place,” O’Toole said.

“They will fail.”