RUC officers have escaped serious injury in a bomb attack blamed on dissident republicans in Derry.
Three of the officers were treated for shock after a device exploded beside their car as they investigated reports of a burning car in the city's nationalist Shantallow area at about 12.30 a.m. yesterday.
The policemen had been travelling in two unmarked but armoured cars, the second of which took the force of the blast.
The bombing, the latest in a series of attacks on police and British troops in the Derry area this year, was described by an RUC spokesman as attempted murder. He blamed it on dissident republicans. Whether it was the "Real IRA", Continuity IRA or another group was unclear, he said.
The security forces sealed off the Cornshell Fields housing development where the attack took place while British army bomb-disposal experts examined the scene. About 100 homes are occupied.
Chief Insp George Brien said the attack was a clear attempt to kill RUC officers working for the public. "When one considers the tragic events yesterday in America it is sad to think there are people in this city who have only murder on their minds," he said.
Mr Mitchell McLaughlin, the Sinn Fein assembly member for the area, said: "The people who carried out this attack are opposed to the peace process and opposed to the Good Friday agreement. They have little or no support and operate without either a mandate or indeed a strategy to achieve political change."
Meanwhile, what was thought to be a pipe bomb was left outside a home in Limavady, Co Derry, yesterday morning. Police later said the device was a hoax.