Senior PSNI man shot

A senior member of the PSNI has been injured in a shooting in County Tyrone which has been linked to republican armed groups.

The gun attack took place on Wednesday evening at a sports centre at Killyclogher, near Omagh. The target was a senior officer in the PSNI, who is now said to be in a stable condition at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.

It is the first time a member of the PSNI has been shot in more than six years. It is also the most significant attack on the PSNI since November, when the New IRA carried out a mortar attack on a patrol vehicle in Derry, but without causing injuries.

The shooting comes amid fears of a hardening of the border through Ireland.

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill described Wednesday’s shooting as an “outrageous and shameful attack”.

“My immediate thoughts are with the officer and his family. I unreservedly condemn this reprehensible attempt to murder a police officer,” she said.

Her party colleague and Policing Board member Gerry Kelly said he had put on record his “absolute disgust” at the attack.

No organisation has claimed responsibility, but the New IRA, Continuity IRA, and the newer ‘Arm na Poblachta’ have all been named in connection with the incident.

The increasingly active ‘Arm na Poblachta’ (Republican Army) was blamed for an alert in Derry on Saturday in which a viable device was found in the south of the city. It followed an attempt by the organisation to seize a fast food delivery vehicle. The same group also claimed responsibility for a bomb alert in Derry last November after a viable device was brought to a PSNI base by a delivery vehicle.

There has also been no claim of responsibility as yet for an incident on Friday, February 10, which forced Britain’s Direct Ruler to leave a football match at a stadium in Derry. Chris Heaton-Harris had been attending a soccer match along with Irish President Michael D Higgins and about 4,000 fans when the discovery of a hoax device nearby caused him to abandon the game.

Urgent Appeal