Explosion Near Dunmurry Police Station
The bomb that detonated outside a police station on Saturday was described by a local resident as sounding like a car crashing into a wall.
Joe Morgan, a father of two young children, lives approximately 110 yards from Dunmurry police station and was preparing for bed when he heard a very loud bang.
Upon confirmation from neighbours that the noise was an explosion, his immediate concern shifted to evacuating his children to safety.
The incident in Dunmurry, located on the outskirts of west Belfast, is being investigated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) as an attempted murder.
Authorities suspect the dissident republican group known as the New IRA may be responsible for the bombing.
The attack began when a delivery driver's vehicle was hijacked in Twinbrook, west Belfast, shortly after 22:50 BST on Saturday.
The hijacked car was equipped with a gas cylinder device, and the driver was coerced into driving it to Dunmurry police station.
The driver abandoned the vehicle in front of the police building.
Several residents, including two infants, were evacuated by officers when the device exploded.
Morgan was instructed by police to leave his home and had to wake his two children, aged two and four, to take 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."
Looking out of his windows, Morgan saw neighbours emerging onto the street who 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 noted that his pregnant wife was staying at her mother's house on Saturday night, and he was relieved she was not at home during the explosion.
Police officers went door-to-door in his street advising residents to evacuate in case of a secondary device.
"Your brain starts going 100 miles a minute at that point,"he recalled.
He quickly packed a bag and took his children to his brother-in-law's house for the evening, where they asked why they were having a "sleepover."
The family was unable to return to their home until Sunday afternoon.
Police Federation Response
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland, representing rank and file PSNI officers, condemned the bombing as a "reckless act by desperate no-hopers."
"If you want the definition of madness, then this is no finer example of that,"said its chair Liam Kelly.
"This doesn't move the needle towards any particular goal.
All it does is show that there are still people who want to murder my colleagues and deliver pain and suffering in our communities."
Background on Dissident Republicans
The term "dissident republicans" refers to various individuals and groups who reject the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace deal that ended the most violent period of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The Provisional IRA, the primary armed republican paramilitary group during the Troubles, declared a ceasefire prior to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.
Dissident republicanism comprises several groups that split from the Provisional IRA during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and the New IRA.
Although smaller than the Provisional IRA, these groups have access to high-calibre weapons and have employed improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.
