LONDON, April 26 (Xinhua) — A hijacked car exploded on Saturday night outside a police station in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, but no casualties were caused, local police said on Sunday.
A delivery driver’s car was hijacked in west Belfast and a gas cylinder device was placed in the boot of the vehicle, before the driver was ordered to drive to Dunmurry police station and abandon the vehicle there, according to a statement by Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The device exploded, “engulfing the vehicle in flames and sending debris in all directions,” when local residents were being evacuated.
An attempted murder investigation led by terrorism investigation unit has been launched, the statement said, adding that no one has been injured.
“This explosive device was sent to kill officers and cause maximum harm in an attack which was in the heart of a residential area,” Brendan Mullan, the chair of Northern Ireland Policing Board, said on Sunday. “This is the second incident at a police station in recent weeks which is depressing.”
On March 30, two masked men hijacked a car in Lurgan, south-west of Belfast, and placed an explosive device in the boot of the vehicle, according to local police.
The driver was ordered to drive to Lurgan Police Station, where he managed to escape, and ammunition technical officers carried out a controlled explosion of the “crude, but viable improvised explosive device.”
Local police believed that it is “highly likely that dissident Republican groups are responsible” for the Lurgan incident. ■
