Car bomb explodes outside County Armagh police station

The bomb exploded on Thursday night Two people have been injured in a car bomb explosion outside a police station in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh. The explosion happened at about 2325 BST. Police were told in a call to a Belfast hospital about an hour earlier that a vehicle had been abandoned. Police were en route to the station, which is staffed on a part-time basis, when the explosion happened. The two people's injuries are not life-threatening. Shots are reported to have been fired before the explosion. The attack came as security sources told the BBC the threat posed by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland was higher than at any time since the Omagh bomb almost 12 years ago. Local residents said the blast could be heard eight to 10 miles away, and a number of nearby properties were damaged. The town centre has been cordoned off and Newtownhamilton High School has been opened for residents who have had to leave their home. Last week, the Army defused a car bomb outside the town's police station. Meanwhile, a pipe bomb has exploded behind a house in Chestnut Hill in the Brackaville area of Coalisland, County Tyrone at about 2330 BST on Thursday night. A man and a woman, who were in the house at the time, were uninjured but a number of windows were damaged.