Police have launched an investigation straddling the Irish border after a bomb was placed under an officer’s car.

A “sophisticated” device was discovered under the man’s vehicle at Shandon Park golf club in east Belfast on Saturday. It is suspected dissident republicans were to blame.

Detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) want to trace a Dublin-registered green Skoda Octavia and are working with their counterparts in Ireland. They said if the device had exploded it would have caused death or serious injury.

The assistant chief constable George Clarke said: “We are extraordinarily fortunate that we are not talking about the murder of a police officer, of members of his family or members of the public passing a bomb that has been planted recklessly, cruelly and viciously under his motor car.

“The attempt to murder a police officer is an attempt to murder a public servant. I cannot understand what cause is advanced by attempting to murder a man who day in, day out seeks to serve his community.”

About 70 people were evacuated from the golf club after staff were alerted on Saturday afternoon.

Police have requested dashcam footage or other information from members of the public about two vehicles that may have been seen in the area between 10pm on Friday and 7.30am on Saturday. They include the Skoda and a Northern Ireland-registered silver Saab.

The officer who discovered the device was in the habit of checking his vehicle. Clarke, who spoke to him on Sunday morning, said: “He is obviously shaken by the fact that people chose to attempt to murder him and were reckless in what they would have done to him and his family.”

DS Sean Wright, who heads the PSNI’s terrorism investigation unit, said the “unstable” device was brought through a busy urban area. He added: “This was a viable device, it contained explosives. It was designed to kill. It was deployed in order to kill and maim and the officer is extremely fortunate that it did not go off as intended.”

The main line of inquiry focuses on dissident republicans. Detectives are keeping an open mind about where the device was deployed and urged anyone in the Shandon Park area before the attack to come forward with information.

The Tory MP David Davis said: “The people of Northern Ireland want no return to the cruelty and violence of the past and simply want to live their lives in peace. They will want no part in the brutality of this attempted murder.”