BELFAST: Police in Northern Ireland said on Sunday they suspected dissident Irish republicans could be behind an overnight car bomb attack outside a police station near Belfast, which caused no casualties.

The explosion in Dunmurry, southwest of the Northern Irish capital, occurred after a “gas cylinder-type device” was placed in a delivery driver’s hijacked car and driven to the location, according to police.

It followed a similar attempted bombing on March 30, when the device failed to explode outside a police station in the nearby town of Lurgan, with paramilitary group the New IRA claiming responsibility for that attack.

So-called dissident republicans are pro-united Ireland individuals and groups who do not accept a landmark 1998 peace deal.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2026