Ram-raiders tried to burn down a Catholic school in Co Antrim today by smashing through the front doors in a stolen car.
Thieves crashed through the main perimeter gate at St Patrick's High School in Lisburn in the latest attack on the building.
The car was then reversed at high speed towards the main foyer before becoming impaled on a metal hand rail just feet from laminated glass doors.
The car was set alight, causing some damage to the front of the school.But Fr Sean Rogan, chairman of St Patrick's board of governors, claimed it could have been much worse.
He said: "If they had penetrated the foyer we would have lost the school."The early morning attack came just a fortnight after arsonists destroyed two mobile classrooms.
Fr Rogan, the parish priest in Lisburn, claimed windows in the school were being broken continually while Catholic churches in the area have been repeatedly targeted.
He refused to speculate on the motive for the latest attack.
But he added: "Is it coincidental that it's a Catholic school being attacked all the time?
PA