A police officer in Belfast was injured in a suspected drive-by shooting on Sunday in what Northern Ireland’s Police Federation said amounted to a “terrorist gun attack”.
The BBC, citing an unidentified police source, reported that the officer was hit in the arm after a number of shots were fired.
The Police Federation, which represents officers, said the incident amounted to a “terrorist gun attack”.
Chairman Mark Lindsay condemned the shooting and warned officers to remain at high alert.
“This attack on the life of an officer is a stark reminder of the determination on the part of terrorists to murder and maim police officers,” he said in a statement.
Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said the incident was “sickening”.
A police spokesman did not immediately return a call requesting details.
Shootings of police officers in Northern Ireland have been relatively rare since a 1998 peace deal ended three decades of violence between Catholic Irish nationalists, opposed to British rule, and Protestant pro-British unionists.
A prison officer died after a car bombing in Northern Ireland in March last year that was claimed by a group of militant nationalists opposed to the peace process.
Northern Ireland is to conduct regional elections on March 2.
Last week the ruling coalition between Irish nationalists Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party collapsed.