A policeman suffered serious head injuries today when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver who failed to stop at a checkpoint close to the Border.
Chief Inspector Ralph Taggart said: "We had been carrying out a road safety operation in close proximity to a primary school on the Concession Road when our officer was struck. He was standing on the hard shoulder of this busy road when he was hit by the vehicle."
"The road safety operation was being carried out in order to prevent the kind of driving that poses a danger to the whole community," Chief Insp. Taggart added.
The policeman suffered serious head injuries when he was hit by the blue Peugeot 406, with a Southern registration, when it sped North through the checkpoint on the Concession Road in Crossmaglen, South Armagh.
The driver of the Peugeot abandoned it up the road and is believed to have made off in an Isuzu Trooper that was stolen a short time after the accident from a yard on the Concession Road.
Police are searching for the Isuzu - registration W167 UEL - and officers have appealed for anyone who witnessed the accident or saw the jeep to contact them.
Additional reporting PA