Policeman 'Serious' After NI Bombing

A policeman has been taken to hospital after a bomb exploded under his car in Co Antrim this morning.

The victim of the early morning car bomb attack was rushed to hospital soon after the blast which exploded under a car, the police have confirmed.

It is understood he sustained serious injuries to his pelvis.

The Chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board has condemned those behind this morning's attack.

Barry Gilligan said: "I understand that the officer has been taken to hospital and our thoughts are first and foremost with him and his family.

"This was an attempt to murder and those behind this attack cannot be allowed to succeed in bringing any further terror to our community.

"I would urge anyone with information on this incident to pass it to the police," he said.

There is an ongoing security alert at the scene of the explosion on Milltown Road in Randalstown.

No one has claimed responsibility for planting the bomb yet, which exploded at 6.30am.

The road has been closed and army technical officers have been called to the scene.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the officer has been seriously injured.

NIO Security Minister Paul Goggins has condemned the car bomb attack in Randalstown.

"This vile attack will sicken people across Northern Ireland. I applaud the work the PSNI are doing to make our towns and cities safer. That work is in stark contrast to those who tried to murder this officer.

"Those who planted this device are to be condemned and anyone with information should bring it to the PSNI so that those responsible can be brought before the courts," he said.

Ulster Unionist South Antrim MLA Danny Kinahan has also expressed his horror at a car bomb attack in Randalstown this morning in which a policeman was seriously injured.

"It is disgusting that, once again, we are witness to an attack on an off-duty officer.

"Each and every time an incident of this nature occurs, we are taken back to the dark days of the past.

"However, while those who carried out this despicable act are intent on undermining the stability of Northern Ireland, majority will clearly indicates that it is they, and not the police, who are unwanted within this society," he said this morning.

Dissident republicans have planted a number of bombs across Northern Ireland in the last year with a bomb under a policeman's car in east Belfast which left his partner suffering minor injuries in the attack.

A republican dissident splinter group called Oglaigh na hEireann admitted planting that under-car bomb using a recognised codeword.

The group said that it was a mercury tilt-switch-type device designed to cause maximum damage to the passenger side of the vehicle.

A serving police officer who works as a dog handler was the intended target.

Meanwhile, SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns has commented on this morning's attack: "The scene of this attack is not all that far from Massarene Barracks, (in which two soldiers were gunned down).

"At the time of last year's attacks all the people made their views absolutely clear. Across all parties and shadews of opinion, they condemned them utterly and called on the armed dissident groups to stop their murderous activities. We want no more murders, no more shootings, no more bombs.

"People in Randalstown and everywhere else want policing and want officers to be able to live openly in all communities.

"We are simply not going to allow a handful of criminally-minded people to set back all we have achieved," he said.

Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin MLA for South Antrim has also condemned the attack on a young PSNI Officer in Randalstown this morning as "reprehensible".

"The groups who are carrying out these attacks are acting contrary to the wishes of the Irish people who want to see the continued development of a peaceful and democratic political process that allows everyone to work towards our political objectives," he said.

See: Belfast Car Bomb Admitted

(BMcC/GK)