Dissident republicans target banking system after failing to mount serious protests against the Queen's Ireland visit

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The bombing of a bank in Derry on Saturday is the continuation of the Real IRA's terror campaign against the banking system, security sources have warned.

Last year, the Real IRA issued a warning in the Guardian that banks and bankers were potential targets for attacks. Within weeks of that threat, the terror group exploded a bomb outside the headquarters of the Ulster Bank in the city.

A senior police officer in Derry on Sunday described those responsible for bombing a branch of the Santander bank in the city centre as cowards.

Chief Inspector John Burrows appealed for information about the attack on a Santander branch in the Diamond at about 1.20pm on Saturday afternoon.

No one was injured but Burrows said young children caught up in the alert were terrified.

Masked men threw a holdall containing the bomb into the bank. Police cleared the area and it exploded an hour later.

Workmen spent Sunday morning dealing with extensive damage to the building.

"There were young children who had to be evacuated. People could have been killed when this explosion went off," Burrows said.

Mark Durkan, the SDLP MP for Foyle, said he was "deeply angered and shocked at this dangerous attack".

Northern Ireland's first minister, Peter Robinson, condemned those responsible and said they had nothing to offer society except "death and destruction".

One senior security source told the Guardian that the Real IRA still posed a threat to senior bankers and bank branches.

"They [the Real IRA] probably think it's popular to be targeting banks, especially after the outrage over Constable Ronan Kerr's murder. They will continue to target police officers, particularly Catholic recruits. But they are cynical enough to try and exploit people's anger over the banks," he said.

In a statement to the Guardian last autumn, the republican dissident group said the behaviour of banks and bankers during the recession "had not gone unnoticed".

The dissident republican cause sustained a massive morale blow last week during the Queen's visit to the Republic. All of the main dissident organisations failed to bring out large numbers to protest against the first royal tour of Ireland since 1911.

Their activities were severely disrupted by the Garda Siochana, which made more than 20 arrests of dissident suspects in Dublin before and during the ground-breaking trip by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.