BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) — A policeman was wounded in a shooting at a petrol station in north Belfast on Sunday evening (January 22), the police service said.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said the wounded policemen underwent surgery following the attack.
“At 7:30 tonight some of our community police officers were doing their duty in north Belfast, and as they were coming out of a petrol station in Crumlin Road there was an attempt made to murder both of them. Several shots had been fired at them and one of the officers has been injured, he has been taken to the Royal Victoria hospital where he is undergoing surgery, but thankfully his injuries are not believed to be life threatening,” he said.
“Our main line of inquiry at the minute is violent dissident republicans. One arrest has already been made. I know there are some rumours that shots were returned by police. At this stage, that is not correct, there were no shots returned by police,” he added.
Shootings of police officers in Northern Ireland have been relatively rare since a 1998 peace deal ended three decades of violence between Catholic Irish nationalists, opposed to British rule, and Protestant pro-British unionists.
Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire condemned the attack and paid tribute to officers in Northern Ireland.
“We’ve seen a really shocking and sickening act of violence against an officer of the police service of Northern Ireland, a uniformed officer. I think it underlines the risks that they take, and my thoughts are very much with him and obviously all other officers who put themselves in harm’s way to see that the people of Northern Ireland are safe and protected,” he said.
A prison officer died after a car bombing in Northern Ireland in March last year that was claimed by a group of militant nationalists opposed to the peace process.
Northern Ireland is to hold regional elections on March 2 following the collapse of a coalition between Irish nationalists Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party.