Two arrested in North Ireland car bombing as New IRA suspected
Two men in their twenties were arrested in Londonderry yesterday following a car bomb attack in the city.
The attack came shortly after 8pm on Saturday when a vehicle exploded on Bishop Street. Police and army bomb disposal experts remain at the scene.
Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said the dissident republican group New IRA is their main line of inquiry.
“The New IRA, like most dissident republican groups in Northern Ireland, is small, largely unrepresentative, and determined to drag people back to somewhere they don’t want to be,” said Mr. Hamilton.
Mr Hamilton detailed how a pizza delivery driver was hijacked on Saturday evening at some point after 6pm, and his car packed with explosives before being left outside the court house on Bishop Street in Derry.
“Between then and 7.23pm, a bomb was put in that car, driven at least half a mile to outside the court house on Bishop
Street and around three minutes later a phone call went in to the Samaritans in West Midlands in England, which was then passed to West Midlands Police who then contacted us.
“In the intervening minutes we had already found the car and started to evacuate the area. At around 8.09pm, the bomb detonated.
“Fortunately it didn’t kill anybody and fortunately it didn’t cause widespread damage, but clearly it was a very significant attempt to kill people in the local community.”
He added they got everyone evacuated “just in time”.
No-one was injured in the attack, which has been condemned by politicians across Northern Ireland’s divide.
Mr Hamilton condemned the attack as “unbelievably reckless”.
Secretary of State Karen Bradley said those responsible would not be permitted to disrupt progress in Northern Ireland.
“The small number of people responsible have absolutely nothing to offer Northern Ireland’s future and will not prevail,” she said.
“Our voices across the political spectrum are united. This is intolerable violence and we want to look forward and build a peaceful future for all in Northern Ireland.
The mayor of Derry, John Boyle, challenged those responsible to explain themselves. “I would actually like to ask the people responsible for this what it actually was that they thought they were going to achieve.
“It achieves nothing, it didn’t achieve anything in the past, it didn’t achieve anything right now,” the SDLP mayor said.
“This is the past and it has to stay in the past. We don’t want to see any more of it.”