PSNI officer remains critical

A police officer injured in a dissident republican car bomb attack in Co Antrim last week remains in a critical condition in …

A police officer injured in a dissident republican car bomb attack in Co Antrim last week remains in a critical condition in hospital.

Constable Peadar Heffron (33), had just left his home outside Randalstown, Co Antrim, to start work in west Belfast when the device exploded under his car early on Friday morning.

He was taken to hospital for emergency treatment before being transferred to the Royal Victoria in Belfast, where he remains in a critical condition.

The explosion happened two miles from the Massereene Army barracks, where two soldiers just about to leave for Afghanistan were shot dead by the Real IRA last March.

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PSNI’s chief constable Matt Baggott said dissidents remain a small but dangerous group and called on the public to provide information relating to the attack.

“We’ve always said the situation is severe,” he said at police headquarters in Belfast.

“We have the resources to deal with it but what we need is more information all the time from the public and more support and more encouragement.”

Amid suspicions that the high-profile constable was specifically targeted to dissuade other Catholics from joining the police, Mr Baggott made clear that the tactic would not work.

He said he was confident the attack would not dissuade other recruits from a nationalist background from joining the service.

“I want to pay him that tribute today as he lies seriously injured in hospital as a result of this abhorrent attack.”

The chief constable said he was confident the attack would not dissuade other recruits from a nationalist background from joining the service.

PA