12/02/2010

Officers Hurt In Police Station Alert

Five officers have been slightly injured following a car crash with a suspect vehicle in north Belfast.

The PSNI said it happened when a car was seen to be driven in a suspicious manner at the back of Antrim Road police station at about 11pm on Thursday.

The station has been the scene of past tragedy, such as RUC Constable James Nixon who was shot dead by the IRA as he was finishing a shift just 12 days before Christmas, 1972 and there have been republican attacks in more recent times on the facility.

During last night's incident a few houses in the Cliftonville Parade area were evacuated as Army bomb experts examined the car. A 19-year-old man was arrested during the operation.

A police spokesperson said that the officers involved sustained minor whiplash injuries and that nothing suspicious was found in the arrested man's car.

Residents were allowed back to their homes shortly at 4am this morning.

Commenting on the evacuation of residents, SDLP Councillor Nichola Mallon said: "Thankfully no one was seriously injured in this incident but local people were put to serious disruption.

"Families and residents in Cliftonville Parade were evacuated from their homes from 11pm right through to around 4am this morning while army bomb experts examined the car.

"Fortunately no suspect device was found but I'm sure there will be concern and frustration among residents that they were rapped-up out of their beds and asked to leave their homes in the bitterly cold dead of night.

"As a society we still have a long way to go. Last night shows the domino effect and serious disruption to the local community that one suspicious incident can still have," she said.

See: CIRA behind nail bomb attack on police station

(BMcc/GK)

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