A police officer was seriously injured by gunfire last night in Northern Ireland in an attack police suspect the New IRA is behind.

Chief Inspector John Caldwell was off-duty when he was attacked by two gunmen in front of his son after training at a sports center in Omagh while loading footballs into his car.

The two gunmen shot him repeatedly and continued to shoot him after he was on the ground. Two more cars were hit by bullets in the sports center parking lot as parents and children ran for cover.

The police officer is hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

The car in which the perpetrators of the attack escaped was later found burnt.

Police are investigating attempted murder.

What is the New IRA organisation?

Although the 1998 peace accords ended the three decades of violence known as “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, police officers are still sporadically targeted by violent groups of mainly republicans opposed to British rule over the Irish countryside.

Police are investigating all possibilities but are focusing their inquiries on violent dissident republican circles and particularly the New IRA, Chief Constable Mark McGewan told the BBC.

The New IRA is responsible for the murder of journalist Lira McKee in 2019.

In April 2021, a bomb was planted under a policewoman’s car in front of her home. The New IRA, a dissident group that broke away from the Irish Republican Army (IRA), claimed responsibility for the attack.

Reactions and condemnation of the attack

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his disgust at yesterday’s attack on the police officer. “There is no place in our society for those who seek to harm the officers who protect the population,” he tweeted.

Sinn Fein leader Michelle O’Neill condemned the “outrageous and disgraceful” attack.

Unionist DUP leader Geoffrey Donaldson denounced the “cowards” responsible for the attack. “The terrorists have nothing to offer and must be brought to justice.”