Explosion, Palace Barracks, Holywood
12 Apr 2010
District Commander Chief Superintendent Nigel Grimshaw has strongly condemned the reckless attack in Holywood during the early hours of this morning and is urging members of the community to assist police with their investigation.
“This was a very serious incident where a device exploded at the gates of Palace Barracks at around 12.20am this morning. Let me be clear from the outset and absolutely condemn this attack and I know every right thinking person in Northern Ireland will support me in that statement.
“Clearly the people responsible for this showed absolutely no regard for human life. There is no question in my mind, this was designed for one thing and one thing only – to kill or cause serious injury to people and that’s exactly what it would have done were it not for the actions of my officers and military colleagues in the Barracks and the community themselves working together. Thankfully we were able to evacuate people from the immediate area of the explosion.
“The incident started when a silver Skoda taxi was hijacked in the Horseshoe Court area of Ligoneil at around 9.50pm last night. The taxi driver was held by three males for just under two hours. During this time the device was loaded into his taxi and he was then told to drive the vehicle to Palace Barracks.
“We had no other warning about this device. We became aware of the abandoned vehicle outside the Barracks just before midnight and commenced evacuation procedures. The bomb then exploded at 12.20am as security staff were still evacuating the surrounding area.
“Clearly the taxi driver has been left feeling extremely traumatised following his horrific ordeal. It is a miracle that no one was more seriously injured and that we are not dealing with fatalities this morning.
"This device has caused untold disruption to the local community in Holywood and unfortunately that will continue for a period throughout the day. Over twenty homes had to be evacuated during the early hours of this morning and those residents were taken to the Redburn Community Centre. We apologise for this inconvenience and hope to have people back in their homes and the road reopened as soon as possible.
“It is the local community who have been most affected by this. There are people still sitting in this community centre including young babies and children who had to be lifted from their beds during the early hours because a few spineless criminals decided to leave an explosive device near their homes. Nobody in Northern Ireland wants to go back to this.
“The people responsible for this cowardly attacks refuse to accept that Northern Ireland is moving on and that peace is working here. They are callous criminals who simply want to drag everyone back to the past to suit their misguided objectives. They seek to target those who are at the very forefront of moving communities forward and try to rule these communities by fear.
"They show nothing but a complete disregard for the lives of the people in the local community. They do not care who they hurt and simply want to drag people back to the dark days of the past.
"The Police Service, like the vast majority of the community, is determined not to let that happen. These criminals have no role to play in this community and have absolutely no support from the ordinary decent people living here in Northern Ireland.
"Despite the ongoing dissident threat, officers commit themselves daily to working in the community to provide them with the level of policing and support they deserve and we would ask everyone to work together to achieve this.
"We will continue to take a robust stance against all dissident republican terrorist activity. We are confident that every right minded member of society will continue to work with us and to give us the information we need to put these people out of business once and for all and in doing so, make Northern Ireland a safer place.
“I would like to appeal to the local community to work with us to bring forward any information that they have available in relation to this particular attack and help us to bring these people to justice.
“We are particularly appealing for witnesses who may have witnessed the silver Skoda taxi in the Ligoneil area at around 9.50pm last night or who may have any seen any suspicious activity around Palace Barracks recently.
“My appeal is not only to the local community but also to the leadership of all our politicians to support police in building peace and to not let this incident detract us all from that goal. I would ask anyone with information to provide it to us.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0845 600 8000. Alternatively members of the public can pass information anonymously to the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.”
