Officer in car bomb attack 'critical'

THE CATHOLIC PSNI officer injured in a suspected dissident republican car bomb attack on Friday morning remained in a “critical…

THE CATHOLIC PSNI officer injured in a suspected dissident republican car bomb attack on Friday morning remained in a “critical” condition in hospital last night.

Peadar Heffron (33) is being treated in the intensive care unit of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Police have mounted a full-scale investigation to try to track the dissidents who planted the bomb under Mr Heffron’s car but up to last night there were no arrests.

Mr Heffron, an Irish language enthusiast and captain of the PSNI Gaelic football team, was badly injured when the bomb exploded under his Alfa Romeo car in Randalstown, Co Antrim, at about 6.30am on Friday.

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Recently married, Mr Heffron is understood to have been driving to work in west Belfast when the attack happened.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams yesterday joined in the condemnation of the attack. “We have made it very clear that there is no place in society for these actions,” he said. “They are entirely self-serving. The goodwill of Sinn Féin goes to that young officer and his family. We need to ensure that there is no room in terms of the turbulence at the moment for these people to exploit it.”

The explosion is the latest in a series of attacks by dissidents and virtually identical to one close to the PSNI headquarters in Belfast in October in which an officer’s girlfriend narrowly escaped death.

Mr Heffron has served with the police for nine years and was among officers who attended the first meeting where discussions in Derry between Policing Board officials and members of the public were conducted in Irish.

Det Chief Supt Derek Williamson urged people in the area to come forward if they noticed anything suspicious.