Officers slammed over slow response to blast

Officers failed to arrive on the scene before a device exploded outside an unoccupied police station in the south Armagh town of

Newtownhamilton on Thursday night.

The bomb in a Toyota Corolla detonated 50 minutes after a hospital received a telephone warning from the bombers – who also fired a volley of shots as they abandoned the vehicle.

A Lithuanian man and a woman aged in her 80s suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the blast.

In the absence of police on the ground, firefighters who had been responding to an unrelated incident nearby were forced to co-ordinate the evacuation of nearby homes.

Police commanders, who finally deployed officers to the scene about 10 minutes after the bomb went off, said they had to proceed with caution because of the threat of a secondary booby trap or gun attacks.

But the Presbyterian minister in Newtownhamilton, Rev Ker Graham, said members of his congregation felt the police were reluctant to patrol the overwhelmingly republican district.

"There's no security within this area," he said.

"My question is where does the border start for police? Because local people feel they don't like coming into this area. They feel vulnerable and are living in fear, they have been through thirty years of conflict and don't want to go back.

"South Armagh appears to be like a red dot for the police – a bad area – but it's still part of Northern Ireland and the whole area has to be policed."

The attack, which damaged several homes, a pub and a community centre, came just hours after security chiefs had warned the terrorist threat level in Northern Ireland was as high as any time since the Omagh bombing of 12 years ago.

It also came 10 days after dissidents abandoned another bomb outside the same police station - though it failed to detonate.

That incident came 24 hours after a Real IRA car bomb exploded outside the regional headquarters of MI5 in Holywood, Co Down, minutes after justice powers were devolved to Stormont from London.

Senior police chiefs defended the handling of the incident.

One senior officer acknowledged that police had to explain the delays effectively.

"I think we need to make sure that we are constantly engaging with the community to make sure they understand why we respond in the way that we do," he said.