Man arrested in connection with police station bomb

A 66-year-old man has been arrested by detectives investigating a bomb explosion at a police station on the outskirts of Belfast.

A hijacked car, which had been fitted with a gas cylinder device, detonated outside Dunmurry Police Station on Saturday night.

The man, who was detained in the Dunmurry area, was arrested under the Terrorism Act and was taken to Musgrave Serious Crime Suite for questioning.

Police said they are also carrying out a number of searches in both east and west Belfast.

In a statement to The Irish News, the New IRA said it was responsible for the attack.

The dissident republican group said it had been an attempt to kill police officers as they tried to leave the building.

On Tuesday, Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck said the PSNI's job was "to keep communities safe and also our officers who bravely serve to protect these communities" and called on the "active support" of communities.

He said the PSNI had "concerns about threats across Northern Ireland from dissident groups", and as part of a high-visibility policing operation there would be more vehicle checkpoints and patrols.

He said the PSNI is treating the attack as attempted murder.

A vehicle was hijacked at gunpoint in Twinbrook in west Belfast shortly after 22:50 BST on Saturday.

The vehicle was then fitted with a gas cylinder device before the driver was ordered to bring the bomb to the station.

The device detonated while police were directing local residents to safety, including families with young babies.

The attack took place in a built-up area, close to family homes in which many children were already in bed asleep.

Speaking to BBC News NI, Brendan Mullan, chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said officers will be "very diligent in terms of their own emphasis on personal security".

"I would urge the community to remain united and to put their arm around the shoulder of police officers that they know and for them to be vigilant in terms of what's happening in their neighbourhood and to protect those officers in the same way that those officers are protecting us from day to day," he said.

The current threat level in relation to Northern Ireland related terrorism currently sits at substantial, something Mullan said is "where it should be," after such an event.

He said the whole community wants to see that threat level going down.

Valerie McDonagh has lived near Dunmurry Police Station for 30 years and told BBC News NI she has "never experienced anything like this".

The atmosphere in Dunmurry since Saturday is "very wary", McDonagh said, adding: "We just never expected this to happen in our wee place in Dunmurry. It makes us a bit anxious being beside the police station."

She said Saturday night was "very scary".

"It was something like out of a film, it just didn't feel real," she said.

Northern Ireland's chief constable said it had been a "deliberate, reckless and stupid attack".

Jon Boutcher praised the bravery of officers who "rushed towards danger" to evacuate family homes close to Dunmurry police station.

The chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents rank and file PSNI officers, said the statement issued to The Irish News bore "all the hallmarks of fascist thugs and cowards".

"This is a pathetic claim of responsibility for the Dunmurry PSNI Station attack," Liam Kelly said.

He described it as "old rhetoric dressed as new from a small, self-styled group".

Kelly said there was an onus on political, church and civic leaders to condemn "this cowardly attempt to bully and intimidate our police colleagues".

"It's time for them to get off the fence to show they are 100% supportive of the work our men and women do in all communities to investigate crime and safeguard people," he said.

The term "dissident republicans" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

The Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.

Dissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.

The groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and explosive devices.