Car bomb hijacking victim 'incredibly brave' says police chief

A delivery driver who was forced to bring a bomb to a police station was "incredibly brave", the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said.

The man's vehicle was hijacked at gunpoint in west Belfast on Saturday night and he was ordered to transport the bomb to Dunmurry police station where it exploded outside.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said the driver "alerted police staff and officers as to what had happened" which enabled the evacuation of local residents.

The PSNI believes dissident republicans carried out the bombing, which is being treated as attempted murder.

The attack took place in a built-up area, close to family homes in which many children were already in bed asleep.

As well as praising the quick reaction of the delivery driver, Boutcher paid tribute to his own officers who were clearing the area when the bomb went off.

"The officers, without any consideration for their own safety, came out the police station to make sure residents nearby the car were evacuated," he said.

"At that point the device within the car detonated.

"Fortunately, and it's only through good fortune, that nobody was seriously injured or killed."

Boutcher said his officers suspect the bombing was carried out by the dissident republican group known as the New IRA.

He told the BBC's Nolan Show it was and "absolutely irresponsible, unacceptable act of violence".

"No one has yet claimed responsibility, but we are expecting to hear a claim of responsibility, and from what we know it may will likely be again the New IRA."

The same organisation is also suspected of carrying out a similar attack in Lurgan, County Armagh, last month, although in that incident the bomb did not explode.

"We are just seeing a period of behaviour from these utterly, mindless thugs who nobody supports, nobody is with them, nobody is behind them," Boutcher said.

"We are seeing a period of behaviour that we need to address very quickly, arrest them and put them where they belong, which is in prison."

The attack began when the delivery driver's car was hijacked in Twinbrook, west Belfast, shortly after 22:50 BST on Saturday.

His vehicle was fitted with a gas cylinder device and the man was forced to drive it to Dunmurry police station.

The driver abandoned the vehicle in front of the building and alerted police.

Several residents, including two babies, were being taken to safety by officers when the device exploded.

One of the residents who had to leave his home during the evacuation on Saturday night said the bomb sounded like a car crashing into a wall.

Joe Morgan, a father of two, lives about 110 yards from Dunmurry police station.

His children - aged two and four - were already asleep and he was getting ready for bed himself when the device detonated.

"I was just flicking off lights and starting the wind down and I heard a loud bang" he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"I grew up at the tail end of the Troubles, so my mind didn't actually immediately go to an explosion.

"I thought it was maybe a vehicle that had crashed into something in the street or my house."

When he looked out of his windows he saw his neighbours coming out onto the street and they confirmed that a bomb had exploded.

"A neighbour showed me a photo of the car on fire... obviously the focus is on the kids and getting them to safety."

Police officers then began knocking on doors in his street, advising residents to evacuate in case there was a secondary device.

"Your brain starts going 100 miles a minute," Morgan recalled.

He said he tried to stay calm while he packed some belongings, but admitted that the "adrenaline is going quite a bit at this point".

His pregnant wife was staying at her mother's house on Saturday night and he said he was "grateful" she was not at home when the bomb went off.

"I'd phoned my brother-in-law just to see if there was a bit of a space for the evening and I was trying to gather some things together for my wife as well."

He had to wake his children, the elder of whom wanted to know why they were having a "sleepover" at their uncle's house.

"They are not really questions you're expecting to have to answer in 2026," Morgan said.

He also praised other residents in his street, some of whom had shown great concern for their elderly neighbours during the evacuation.

The residents set up a group chat on their mobile phones to share information about when the cordon would be lifted, etc.

"I was lucky having family that I could immediately jump in a car and get to," Morgan acknowledged.

The family were not able to return to their home until teatime on Sunday.

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents rank and file PSNI officers, described the bombing as a "reckless act by desperate no-hopers".

"If you want the definition of madness, then this is no finer example of that," said its chair Liam Kelly.

"This doesn't move the needle towards any particular goal.

"All it does is show that there are still people who want to murder my colleagues and deliver pain and suffering in our communities."

The term "dissident republicans" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.

Dissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.

The groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.