Police officers escape army base attack

Two PSNI officers escaped injury in a bomb attack outside a Northern Ireland army base last night.

Two PSNI officers escaped injury in a bomb attack outside a Northern Ireland army base last night.

They were close to a device that partially exploded outside the Killymeal base in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.

Police had gone to the scene after a series of bomb warnings issued in the name of the dissident republican Continuity IRA. The group was believed to have been attempting to heighten tensions in the North ahead of voting tomorrow in the Assembly election.

The device partially exploded while the two officers, a man and a woman, were searching around the perimeter fence of the military base.

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The bomb - and a gun attack on a police station in Armagh - were condemned as "contemptible" by Northern Secretary Paul Murphy.

Supt Ken Henning said there could have been a far more serious situation had the bomb fully exploded and that the two officers could have died.

British army bomb experts were called in and successfully defused the remainder of the device. A nearby leisure centre was evacuated during the security operation.

Elsewhere, in Armagh city, a burst of gunfire was directed at a police station from a passing car. No one was injured. The Continuity IRA was being blamed for that attack also.

PA