The Police Service of Northern Ireland is treating as attempted murder an incident in which a boulder was hurled through the windscreen of a woman's car as she drove along a motorway in Co Antrim.
The 56-year-old midwife suffered severe head injuries and a broken arm in the attack at around 11 p.m. on Saturday. She was driving along the M2 near Glengormley on the outskirts of north Belfast when the boulder was dropped from a bridge.
It hit the woman after smashing through the windscreen. The car then crashed into the central reservation before coming to a halt on the hard shoulder. She was the sole occupant of the vehicle. Her condition in hospital was last night described as stable.
Police said it was the latest in a series of attacks on cars travelling along that area of the motorway this year. PSNI Insp John Terrett said: "There have been six similar incidents since the beginning of the year - items ranging from petrol bombs to golf balls have been thrown onto the carriageway causing injury and damage.
"They are very deliberate acts of vandalism and this was particularly despicable, totally random and with potentially murderous consequences."