Babies among residents rushed to safety as car bomb explodes next to police station in Dunmurry

Two babies were among several residents being evacuated when a car bomb detonated inside a hijacked car in Dunmurry, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said.

A senior officer said the attack outside Dunmurry police station, southwest of Belfast city centre, at around 10.50pm on Saturday, is being treated as attempted murder and "may well be the work of the New IRA".

PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said in a statement: "A delivery driver's car was hijacked in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast and a gas cylinder device was placed in the boot of the vehicle. The man was ordered to drive it to Dunmurry police station."

He added the vehicle was abandoned outside the front of the station and officers "immediately and courageously ran into danger, placing themselves in harm's way" and evacuated nearby homes.

"A number of residents, including two babies, were being taken to safety by officers when the device exploded, engulfing the vehicle in flames and sending debris in all directions," he added, calling it a "cowardly attack".

Mr Singleton said there were similarities with an incident at Lurgan Police Station in March, and that the "early working hypothesis is that this [attack in Dunmurry] may well be the work of the New IRA".

He said the investigation into the attack will be led by counter-terrorism police.

Brendan Mullan, chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said in a statement that the device "was sent to kill officers and cause maximum harm".

Images circulating on the social media accounts of local media and politicians show what appears to be a vehicle engulfed by flames next to the police station. No one was harmed in the explosion.

Forensic officers were examining the wreckage of a burnt-out vehicle on Sunday morning beside the station in the Kingsway area of Dunmurry.

Northern Ireland First Minister, Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill, said those behind the attack "speak for absolutely no one".

She posted on social media: "They have no vision, no support, and have nothing to offer our society. Our communities deserve peace."

DUP leader Gavin Robinson described the reports as "deeply concerning".

He added: "If this was another attempt by dissident republicans to intimidate communities and target the police, then it must be met with the full force of the law."

The UK's Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn also said he was "appalled" by the incident, calling it a "shameless and cowardly attack".

There have been a number of organisations that have used the IRA name, often prompted by ideological differences and groups splintering off.

The Real IRA, who were behind the 1998 Omagh bombing, formed in opposition to the 1997 ceasefire agreed by the Provisional IRA, the Republican paramilitaries who fought in the Troubles.

The New IRA are thought to be currently the largest and most active of the dissident republican terrorist groups in Northern Ireland and in the last few years have claimed a number of attacks.

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Last month, an explosive device that police described as "crude but viable" was at the centre of an attempted attack on another PSNI station.

A delivery driver was forced at gunpoint to transport the device to Lurgan police station in an incident blamed on dissident republicans.

(c) Sky News 2026: Babies among residents rushed to safety as car bomb explodes next to police station in Dunmurr