Northern Ireland police federation condemns "terrorist gun attack"
LONDON -- Northern Ireland officials say that a police officer has been shot in the arm in Belfast -- a shooting a police federation condemned as “a terrorist gun attack.”
“This is an appalling act, and I wish to condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” said Mark Lindsay, chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, a representative body for police offcers.
“This attempted murder underlines the fragility of our peace,” Lindsay said in a statement posted on Twitter. “It’s one reason why the threat level here remains classed ‘severe’ which means a terrorist attack is highly likely.”
The officer was shot in the arm in a drive-by attack at a gas station. Since a peace deal ended decades of violence between pro-British Protestant unionists and Catholic Irish nationalists in 1998, shootings targeting police have been relatively infrequent, Reuters reported.
Dissident Irish republicans have at times attacked security forces in the last decade, but there has been no claim of responsibility, the Associated Press reported.
The Police service also said that the officer’s injuries aren’t life-threatening and he is being treated in a hospital. His condition is stable.
The officer hasn’t been identified and police didn’t report any arrests.
Tensions have been rising in Northern Ireland in advance of new elections.
In early March, Northern Ireland is expected to have regional elections -- a vote that comes after the collapse of a coalition between the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party.
Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist deputy leader, called Sunday’s incident “deeply disturbing” and said it “echoes back to the kind of terrorism we used to face on a daily basis.”
“These are scenes that we should all want to move away from in Northern Ireland,” he said in a statement.
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly condemned the attack.
“I totally condemn this gun attack on a PSNI officer in north Belfast tonight,” he said in a statement.
“Those responsible for this attack are the same people who are attacking the local community,” he said.
