Man arrested over Belfast police bomb attack
Police arrest 25-year-old in Shrewsbury over dissident republican attempt to kill two officers answering bogus 999 call
A man suspected of trying to kill two police officers in a dissident republican bomb attack this week has been arrested in Shrewsbury.
The 25-year-old was detained in the suburb of Meole Brace early on Saturday morning and has since been taken to Northern Ireland.
Two improvised grenades were thrown at a police patrol answering a 999 call in north Belfast in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The devices exploded as the officers dived for cover and neither of them were hurt in the blast.
It was the second time in a matter of weeks that dissident republicans had lured police officers into an ambush with bogus emergency calls.
A 27-year-old woman who was arrested in north Belfast on 29 May remains in custody in connection with the attack.
Police Service of Northern Ireland commanders have expressed concern that dissident republicans intend to intensify their violence in the run-up to the G8 leaders’ summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Fermanagh on 17 and 18 June. The summit has prompted the biggest police operation in Northern Ireland’s history, involving 8,000 officers, including 3,600 from England and Wales.
