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BELFAST : A Northern Ireland policeman was on Friday seriously injured in a car bomb attack after a device was planted under his vehicle, police said.
The police officer was on his way to work when the device went off in Randalstown, northwest of Belfast.
"A serving police officer has been seriously injured following the explosion of a device under his car," said a spokeswoman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The PSNI were made aware of the incident at 6:37am (0637 GMT). The officer, who was on his way to work, was taken to hospital. Police asked media not to name the officer.
Army bomb disposal experts were called to the scene. Detectives urged witnesses to come forward if they noted any suspicious activity in the area.
No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The incident happened a short distance from the British army's Massereene Barracks, where two soldiers were shot dead on March 7 last year, the first such killings in a more than a decade that triggered fears of an upsurge in paramilitary violence.
It is the latest in a string of attempted car bombings since then, further underscoring the threat posed by dissident groups to Northern Ireland's fragile peace.
The Northern Ireland Assembly member for the local South Antrim area, Alliance party leader David Ford, called it a "sickening attack" that was "absolutely despicable".
"I am outraged that a very small number of people still believe that using violence will achieve anything. They are seeking to drag us backwards into the dark days," he said.
"These people must be stopped to allow this country to continue to live in peace."
Barry Gilligan, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said: "This was an attempt to murder and those behind this attack cannot be allowed to succeed in bringing any further terror to our community." - AFP/ms
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