Police station bomb sounded like car hitting wall, says resident

The bomb that exploded outside a police station on Saturday sounded like a car crashing into a wall, a local resident has said.

Joe Morgan, a father of two young children, lives about 110 yards from Dunmurry police station and was getting ready for bed when he heard a very loud bang.

He said when his neighbours confirmed it was an explosion, his focus quickly turned to getting his children out of the house to safety.

The attack in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of west Belfast, is being treated as attempted murder by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Officers believe the bombing may have been carried out by the dissident republican group known as the New IRA.

The attack began when a delivery driver's car was hijacked in Twinbrook, west Belfast, shortly after 22:50 BST on Saturday.

His vehicle was fitted with a gas cylinder device and the man was forced to drive it to Dunmurry police station.

The man abandoned the vehicle in front of the building.

Several residents, including two babies, were being taken to safety by officers when it exploded.

Morgan was advised by police to leave his home and had to get his children, aged two and four, out of bed to bring them to a relative's house for the night.

"They were in bed already and I was just flicking off lights and starting the wind down and I heard a loud bang" he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"I grew up at the tail end of the Troubles, so my mind didn't actually immediately go to an explosion.

"I thought it was maybe a vehicle that had crashed into something in the street or my house."

When he looked out of his windows he saw his neighbours coming out onto the street and they confirmed that a bomb had exploded.

"A neighbour showed me a photo of the car on fire... obviously the focus is on the kids and getting them to safety."

Morgan explained his pregnant wife was staying at her mother's house on Saturday night and he was "grateful" she was not at home when the bomb went off.

He said police officers began knocking on doors in his street, advising residents to evacuate in case there was a secondary device.

"Your brain starts going 100 miles a minute," he recalled.

He said he tried to stay calm while he packed some belongings, but admitted that the "adrenaline is going quite a bit at this point".

"I'd phoned my brother-in-law just to see if there was a bit of a space for the evening and I was trying to gather some things together for my wife as well."