Father evacuates children as bomb explodes outside Dunmurry police station

Joe Morgan was getting ready for bed when a bang outside Dunmurry police station jolted his home in a quiet corner of Belfast, about 110 yards from the blast. The father of two young children said the explosion sounded like a car crashing into a wall, and he moved his children to safety after neighbours confirmed what had happened outside.

The blast struck shortly after 10.50pm on Saturday 25 April 2026, when police say a delivery driver’s car was hijacked in Twinbrook, west Belfast. Officers said a gas cylinder device was placed in the boot, the driver was ordered to take the vehicle to Dunmurry police station, and the car was then abandoned outside the front of the station.

Police activated the station’s attack alarm and evacuated nearby homes as the threat escalated. The device exploded while residents, including two babies, were being taken to safety, engulfing the vehicle in flames and sending debris in all directions. No one was injured, but the force said the aftermath left surrounding streets shaken and unable to return to normal immediately.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is treating the case as attempted murder, with the Terrorism Investigation Unit leading the inquiry. Officers said the attack was reckless and cowardly, and they asked anyone with information, or anyone who saw the hijacked vehicle in the Twinbrook area before 11pm, to come forward. Residents remained displaced after the explosion, a reminder that the danger did not end when the fire burned out.

Dunmurry sits on the outskirts of Belfast, and the same policing area also covers Twinbrook, tying the station to the neighbourhoods now most directly affected by the attack. The incident has been blamed on the so-called New IRA, while Keir Starmer condemned it and urged people with information to assist the investigation.

For families like Morgan’s, the violence outside the station was not an abstract security event. It became a late-night emergency, one that forced children out of bed, parents into the street, and a community to confront once again how quickly an attack on a police station can ripple into ordinary homes.