‘ NEW IRA’ HORROR
Four arrests after terror group blows up stolen car outside courthouse
Four people were arrested yesterday after a car bomb terror attack outside a courthouse in Northern ireland.
Police said the New IRA was believed to be responsible for the londonderry blast.
Two men, in their 20s, were detained early yesterday after the Saturday night explosion and another two men, aged 34 and 42, were held in londonderry last night. Dramatic footage released by police showed a fireball erupt as the device was triggered, flinging burning debris into the air.
A person was seen running away from the Ford Fusion car after parking it at the roadside seconds before the blast. No one was injured.
A large group of young people and another vehicle had passed the car moments earlier, CCTV showed.
The car had been hijacked from a pizza delivery driver. Democratic unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said the explosion was a ‘pointless act of terror’, while Sinn Fein president Mary-lou McDonald criticised it as a ‘mindless and outrageous attack’.
ireland’s leader leo Varadkar called it an ‘appalling, reckless and cynical act of terror’. He stressed: ‘Violence to achieve political objectives has been rejected by the people of this island again and again.’
Assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton described the bomb as a ‘crude device’ and branded the incident ‘unbelievably reckless’.
He added: ‘ Fortunately it didn’t kill anybody and it didn’t cause widespread damage. But clearly it was a very significant attempt to kill people in the local community.’
Northern ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said: ‘This is intolerable violence. We want to look forward and build a peaceful future for all in Northern ireland.’
A warning about the attack was received by the Samaritans in the West Midlands shortly before the device detonated at 8.09pm.
Hundreds of people were still being evacuated by police from surrounding buildings at the time of the blast
They included residents, hotel guests, 150 people from a masonic hall and children from a church youth club.
Mr Hamilton said: ‘The bomb detonated just as we were leaving the area and it is only by good grace that local people were not killed.’
He insisted: ‘The New IRA, like most dissident republican groups in Northern ireland, are small, largely unrepresentative and determined to drive people back to somewhere they do not want to be.’
londonderry was rocked by six nights of rioting last July that police blamed on ‘violent dissident republican groups’.
car bombs were last used in the area in 2010.
‘Mindless and outrageous’