Northern Ireland police launched a security operation on Sunday following a suspected car bomb explosion outside a police station near Belfast, with no casualties reported.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stated it was responding to a “bomb alert” in Dunmurry, a south-west district of Belfast.
Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud explosion, and videos circulating on social media showed a vehicle ablaze outside the police station shortly after midnight.
An evacuation was initiated in the area surrounding the incident, according to the PSNI.
Local media reported that fire crews and police personnel extinguished the fire. Political leaders in the region condemned the apparent attack.
The incident comes a month after a reported case in Lurgan, west of Belfast, where a delivery driver was allegedly forced at gunpoint by masked men to drive an explosive device to a police station.
“If this was another attempt by dissident republicans to intimidate communities and target the police, then it must be addressed with the full force of the law,” said Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland’s main pro-British political group.
The term “dissident republicans” refers to individuals and groups seeking Irish unity who reject the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that largely ended three decades of conflict.
Though smaller in size than the Provisional IRA, which ended its armed campaign in 2005, these groups reportedly possess high-calibre weaponry. Police say they have previously employed improvised explosive devices and mortars in their attacks.
