Northern Ireland: masked men hijack two vehicles in Derry

Masked men have hijacked two vehicles in separate incidents in Derry in Northern Ireland, causing fresh security alerts and disruption two days after a car bomb exploded outside the city’s courthouse.

Police established cordons and evacuated homes around both scenes on Monday at a time of widespread condemnation of what appeared to be an escalating campaign by dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.

In the first incident three masked men hijacked a white Transit van on the Circular Road just before 11.30am, police said. The men threw an object into the back of the vehicle before abandoning it at Creggan estate.

Two hours later four masked men, one said to be carrying a gun, hijacked a Royal Mail delivery van and ordered the two occupants to drive it to Lone Moor Road and abandon it close to where army technical officers had carried out controlled explosions on the first vehicle.

In a third incident on Monday night, police responded to a report of an abandoned vehicle on Northland Road, after an Asda delivery van was left parked across the road, stopping traffic in front of St Mary’s secondary school.

Elderly residents were evacuated from their homes in pyjamas as police attempted to secure the area. The security alerts were later declared over and evacuated residents were allowed to return to the vicinity of the Circular Road and Southway.

No group claimed responsibility but suspicion fell on the New IRA, a radical republican group that was also blamed for Saturday night’s car bomb planted in a hijacked pizza delivery vehicle. The blast shook the city centre minutes after police had evacuated hundreds of people from a nearby hotel, youth club and other sites. The area has now reopened to the public.

Police arrested a 50-year-old man on Monday under the Terrorism Act in connection with the attack – the fifth such arrest.

Two men in their 20s were arrested early on Sunday and another two, aged 34 and 42, were arrested on Sunday evening, but the four were released unconditionally on Monday night.

Officers investigating the dissident republican bombing arrested the 50-year-old for questioning about an armed robbery in the city last Tuesday.

Theresa May condemned the bombing in a speech to the House of Commons.

Mark Hamilton, the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s assistant chief constable, said there was no evidence linking Brexit, which has destabilised the Good Friday agreement, to the incidents in Derry.

The threat level in Northern Ireland had been severe since 2009, he told RTE. “Unfortunately there is always some expectation that attacks could happen, but on a general basis we’re not picking up any information that people want to engage in violence due to Brexit.”

The Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, also dismissed the idea of such a link. “Nobody should try and draw any connection between what happened on Saturday night and any of the discussions we are having … with our friends in Europe,” she told the House of Commons.

The New IRA emerged in 2012 via a merger of several groups including the Real IRA. It has been linked with at least one murder – of a prison officer – and several bomb attacks.

“The goal of groups such as the New IRA is to highlight the fact that they are still here and are not going anywhere,” said Marisa McGlinchey, the author of a forthcoming book, Unfinished Business: The Politics of ‘Dissident’ Irish Republicanism.

“While the campaign is low level, they are keen to demonstrate that they have the capability to strike. Their goal is to make their presence felt and to demonstrate their continued allegiance to achieving a 32-county republic.”

Monday was a symbolic day for Irish republicans: the centenary of the first meeting of the Dáil – a breakaway parliament set up by Irish MPs who shunned Westminster – and of an ambush on police officers that helped launch the war of independence against Britain.