The Continuity IRA has admitted a bomb attack on a police station in north Belfast. Two devices, packed with nails, were thrown into the front yard of the Antrim Road base.
One device exploded, blowing a grille off a window. The second was later defused by British army technical experts. The devices were thrown from Rosemount Gardens on Tuesday night. Det Insp Brian Logan said the bombs could have killed.
"They landed right outside the custody suite where two prisoners were inside for interview at the time along with their solicitors. This was just a wall from them.Although I have no doubt police were the intended target, members of the public in the station could have been seriously injured or killed," he said.
A DUP councillor, Mr Nelson McCausland, said the attack was intended to "maim, murder and cause mayhem" and it was fortunate no one was injured.
The Continuity IRA is known to have units in north Belfast. After a lull in dissident republican activity, the paramilitary group has intensified its armed campaign in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a bomb containing up to 15lb of commercial explosives injured six police officers in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.
Meanwhile, loyalists are believed to have been responsible for a pipe-bomb attack in Co Derry. The device was found in the garden of a house at Leckagh Drive in Magherafelt. Three children in the house were uninjured.