Car bomb explodes outside County Armagh police station

Two people have been injured in a car bomb explosion outside a police station in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh.

The explosion happened at about 2325 BST. Police were told in a call to a Belfast hospital about an hour earlier that a vehicle had been abandoned.

Officers were en route to the station, which is staffed on a part-time basis, when the explosion happened.

The two people's injuries are not life-threatening. Shots are reported to have been fired before the explosion.
The two people who were treated in hospital - a man and an elderly woman - are said to have been left "extremely shaken".


BBC reporter Chris Page, who is in the town, described debris littering the main street with damage caused to a pub, shops, houses and a community centre.

He said the extent of the damage to the police station is not yet clear.

He added that local people believe the quick action of firefighters, who moved people from their homes, had prevented further injuries.

Police have said the bomb is believed to have been in a white Toyota Corolla and detectives have appealed for anyone who saw it being abandoned at the station, or beforehand, to contact them.

'High threat'

The attack came as security sources told the BBC the threat posed by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland was higher than at any time since the Omagh bomb almost 12 years ago.

The explosion was reportedly heard up to 10 miles from the scene.

The town centre has been cordoned off and Newtownhamilton High School has been opened for residents who have had to leave their home.

Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers have issued a statement condemning the attack.

Peter Robinson said it was "cowardly and evil" while Martin McGuinness said those responsible had nothing to offer "but hardship, division and pain".

Ita Gibney, who runs the local community centre, said it was very upsetting for people in the town.

"It's going to be a couple of days before we're going to get into the community centre to see what's happened in it, to see what sort of damage has occurred there," she said.

"We just want this place to run as normal."

Last week, the Army defused a car bomb outside the town's police station, one of a number of attacks on police and security bases in Northern Ireland, including an explosion at Palace Barracks in Holywood.

Meanwhile, a pipe bomb has exploded behind a house in Chestnut Hill in the Brackaville area of Coalisland, County Tyrone at about 2330 BST on Thursday night.

A man and a woman, who were in the house at the time, were uninjured but a number of windows were damaged.

Memory is a great failing as we get older, but I'm sure that it was Newton Hamilton RUC Station that was attacked by a bomb in either late 1970, or early '71? It devastated the main street, (almost blowing over one of our Ferrets), because in those days The Station was just really a house front.
Maybe Jimmy can confirm this??

I think Newtownhamilton RUC Station was always more than a house front, although its location on the main street always made it an easy target for drive-by shootings, etc. Like a lot of rural stations it had always been there, then when 'the troubles' really kicked off it was a case that over the years the station was continually added to as the troubles progressed, eventually becoming a small fortress in itself. It looked relatively small from the outside, but like many other such stations this outer facade was somewhat deceiving. It was once a very busy police station, as were all stations and barracks, and was a marker for any/all Friendly Forces in the area. While being a police station it was also home to Army units, as was the norm in most/all such areas. This station has been attacked on numerous occasions, but over the last few years it, along with many rural stations, has been reduced to a skeleton of what it used to be due to cut-backs and this infamous 'peace process' we're supposed to have. Many stations have been closed altogether and have since been demolished ... in fact, when a police station (or anything related to the past) is closed it seems that they can't demolish it quick enough ... if only they could put the same effort and urgency into other, more important things It's not a part of the country I find myself in any more, but to the best of my knowledge, Newtownhamilton (PSNI) station only operates on a part-time basis and is only open between certain hours. I don't have the exact details to hand, but N'hamilton has suffered more that its share of republican terrorist attacks over the years and with the local station being on the main street of the town, last night's attack is just one of many times it has witnessed devastation. The threat level here is currently high and imminent, so this and further attacks are of no surprise to us ... and N'hamilton offered the perfect setting as it's in a strong/staunchly republican area and offers easy escape/cover ... remembering too that in the vast majority of incidents the terrorists always have the element of surprise and planning. 1970/71 was way before my time and I wouldn't know anything about that particular incident, but I'm sure it'll be recorded somewhere .. I don't doubt it though as N'hamilton was one of those towns/places that all-too-often seemed to be nothing more than a magnet for epublican attacks.

Yet again though Armagh has been hit and, sadly, this will receive very little news coverage and will be hushed-up and swept below the carpet so as to uphold this facade of 'peace'. It will be forgotten about, but I have friends in Armagh and if you were to speak to them they'd tell you how things really are ... only two months ago one of them buried their elderly mother, and because they had served in the British Army/Security Forces, they couldn't even use their own church for the funeral and after being contacted by the police they had no alternative but to go to another church some miles away. Their catholic friends and neighbours whom they'd known for a lifetime couldn't attend the funeral and had to go secretly to the graveside, the family couldn't invite mourners back for tea, the funeral needed a police escort and a police helicopter flew overhead for the duration and republican flags and tri-colours were flown and nailed to telegraph poles along parts of the route simply to antagonise ... all this at the funeral of an elderly lady whose only crime was that her family served the Crown, and a number of them were murdered. I know this happened because it was my friend's mother

This and other such incidents continue, but even people over here don't get to hear about them ... it's all covered up and doesn't even get reported on our local news channels. Occasionally it gets a mention on the local Radio, but that's about it.