Terrorists condemned over police car bomb

The booby trap device was detected around 2pm on the vehicle parked off the busy Newtownards Road in east Belfast.

Police said the incident was a clear attempt to kill.

Dissident republicans were last night being blamed for the murder bid.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said: “It is very fortunate that this device was detected before it exploded and that no one was killed or seriously injured.

“Initial investigations would indicate that this was a viable device placed below an officer’s car sometime in the last 48 hours. It was clearly intended to kill the police officer. His family and neighbours in the vicinity were also put at risk of serious harm.

“Obviously there are people out there who are still intent on causing murder and mayhem.”

It is understood the officer discovered the bomb himself.

Newtownards Road is one of the busiest arterial routes into Belfast. The officer’s home is close to the province’s police headquarters and the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

Dissidents have repeatedly targeted security force members in recent years in a bid to destabilise the peace process.

In November, long-serving prison officer David Black, 52, was shot dead in a motorway ambush in Co Armagh as he drove to work.

A group styling itself the “new IRA” claimed the attack. The faction was formed in the summer when a number of splinter groups joined forces.

In April 2011, newly-qualified police officer Ronan Kerr, 25, died when a dissident booby trap car bomb exploded under his vehicle at his home in Omagh.

Terry Spence, chairman of the Police Federation, said it was the latest in a series of attacks.

“Scores of police officers have been forced from their homes in the last 12 months because of terrorist incidents. It reinforces the need for officers to be extra vigilant,” he said.