Petrol bombs also thrown amid disorder in Lurgan and suspect device disrupts rail services between Belfast and Dublin

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Police in Northern Ireland have confirmed that gunshots were fired at its officers during a riot close to the Belfast-Dublin rail link.

Up to 100 petrol bombs were also thrown at officers during the disturbances in Lurgan, County Armagh, late on Sunday night.



The attacks took place as the police and army bomb disposal officers dealt with a suspect device on the rail line linking Dublin and Belfast that runs through the town.



Train services between the two cities were severely disrupted throughout Sunday with passengers from Belfast Central having to travel by bus to Newry before connecting with a train for the southbound journey to Dublin.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) also confirmed on Monday that a number of homes in Lurgan were evacuated while security forces searched for the suspect device.

No one was injured during the trouble in what police described as “orchestrated, intense and prolonged violence” in the Lake Street area of the town.

PSNI Supt David Moore said: “The behaviour of those involved in the disorder last night was nothing short of disgusting.”

Local sources said the anti-ceasefire Continuity IRA (CIRA) was behind the violence. The dissident republican group has a small but active presence in the Lurgan and Craigavon areas of north Armagh.



They said the trouble was linked to the ongoing trial of a number of dissident republican figures from the north Armagh area at a non-jury court in Belfast. CIRA was responsible for killing the first ever member of the PSNI, PC Stephen Carroll, who was shot dead in a sniper attack on a police patrol in March 2009.

The PSNI also revealed it recovered an assault rifle and ammunition during a security operation in Strabane, Co Tyrone, at the weekend aimed at disrupting the activities of dissident republican groups in the north-west of Northern Ireland.

