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A dissident terror group has developed a new bomb making technique as it continues to try and murder police officers.

Detectives revealed today that they believe a bomb left under an officer’s car in Derry’s Culmore area in February featured the same type of pressure plate detonation system as a booby-trap device left for officers lured to a house in the city’s Ballyarnett area in October 2014.

They added that they believe the devices used in the two attacks were built by the same New IRA bombmaker.

As he made a renewed appeal for help in catching the terrorists behind the failed attacks, detective superintendent John McVea said that the most recent attack saw the bomb packed with high explosive.

It did not detonate when the officer drove to work but lay on his driveway for a number of hours before exploding when examined by an ATO.

Supt McVea added: “So unstable was this device, that if a child had touched it as it lay there for a number of hours we would have been dealing with a tragedy. The device contained a substantial amount of high explosives and was designed to detonate via a pressure plate under the wheel.”

The senior officer said that a similar plate detonated device was hidden in a pot, with the plate covered by a mat at a property that officers were lured to with “unsubstantiated reports of a burglary”.

Mr McVea said: “The pressure plate is a crude method of detonation. So not sophisticated, but a very effective means of detonation. The New IRA have access to high explosives - which is concerning.”

DS McVea added that police “believe the New IRA is responsible for both attacks”.

He added: “These types of devices are designed to murder and seriously injure people. If this UVIED [Under Vehicle Improvised Explosive Device] had exploded with our colleague and his young family in the car earlier this year it would have had devastating consequences. I am thankful this was not the case.

“However, I must emphasise that the violent dissident republicans who carried out this attack did indeed intend to kill him and didn’t care that his children or partner could also have been in the vehicle with him at the time.

“I am also relieved that this small group of people, who have nothing to offer the communities they profess to be a part of, were unsuccessful when they tried to lure police into Ballyarnett Village three years ago.

“It is plain to see that they have no regard for the safety of the local community or indeed the wishes of the vast majority of local people who want to live in a safe and peaceful society. They put everyone’s safety at risk as these viable devices were left in residential areas and could have exploded at any time.”

The officer said his team is making an appeal “as we have new information about a light coloured car, understood to be a Toyota Avensis, which we believe was in the area of Ardanlee at 11.00pm on Tuesday 21st February 2017”.

He added: “We have been unable to identify the driver or occupants and I would ask the owner of a car, in the CCTV image to come forward to police or indeed anyone who can provide information about it.”

He said detectives “would like to hear from anyone who saw any unusual vehicles or people acting suspiciously in the Ardanlee area between 5pm on Tuesday, February 21 and 7am on Wednesday 22” as well as “anyone who may have witnessed any suspicious activity or vehicles in the Ballyarnett area of Derry on Sunday 12 October 2014”.

Anyone with information, the police say, should contact detectives at the incident room on 02871379793 the Police general contact number 101 or anonymously via CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111.