AFP/Belfast

Police yesterday confirmed a car bomb attack overnight outside a police building in Northern Ireland, in what officials called a “reckless” attempt to undermine peace in the province.

The vehicle was driven late Saturday night through barriers outside the Belfast headquarters of the supervisory Northern Ireland Policing Board, but the bomb inside failed to detonate properly, Northern Ireland police chief Matt Baggott said.

“It does appear to be a device that has partially exploded, with around 400 pounds” or 180kgs of explosives, he said.

“It is a reckless act — not just in doing damage but also the potential loss of life.”

“Had this device functioned as the terrorists planned, there would certainly have been widespread damage and destruction,” a police statement said later.

Two people were seen fleeing the incident, which came on the same night that police arrested three people after exchanging gunfire with paramilitaries in a village bordering the Irish republic.

Northern Ireland has been largely peaceful since the Good Friday agreement in 1998 paved the way to power-sharing between the province’s Protestant majority and Catholic minority.

But the killings of two British soldiers and a police officer in March this year — the first of their kind in about a decade - highlighted the lingering threat posed by dissident paramilitary groups.

“Very clearly these people are trying to undermine the progress that has been made in Northern Ireland in recent years,” said Britain’s minister for Northern Ireland affairs, Paul Goggins, reacting to Saturday’s car bomb.

“When attacks like these happen, it brings people together with the strong message that these dissidents will not succeed,” he said. “They are a small minority, they are reckless and criminally intent.”

Baggott, the police chief, said: “We have said from day one that the terrorist situation is severe. We have substantial resources being put into investigating and thwarting these attacks.

“This attack is an attack on the well-being of everybody in Northern Ireland. This is not about an attack on policing or the policing board, this is an attack on young people and young people’s future.”