BOTH THE Garda authorities and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) yesterday condemned a petrol bomb attack on an officer operating a speed detection checkpoint near Blarney in Co Cork.
Chief Supt Liam Hayes of Cork City Division said that the petrol bomb attack on the officer while operating a Gatso speed detection van was a highly sinister development. “It’s a very serious incident which could easily have had a tragic outcome but for the fact that the officer was able to extinguish the petrol bomb.
“We see it as a very sinister development and will be doing our utmost to bring the culprit or culprits to justice,” he said.
Chief Supt Hayes’s comments were echoed by Cork GRA representative Michael Corcoran, who said the officer had suffered a burn to his hand when reaching through the flames to get a fire extinguisher. “He was extremely shaken by this attack – officers involved in traffic duty don’t attract this type of attack. It was a potentially lethal attack which could have ended in a fatality or serious injury,” said Mr Corcoran.
“It’s very sinister and we’re absolutely at one with management in this in that we will not lie down in front of this sort of intimidation. Because it’s not just an attack on gardaí, but on law and order and the State itself and those responsible must be brought to book,” he said.
The attack happened at about 7.30pm on Thursday night as the officer in his 30s was operating the Gatso speed detection van at the entrance to the Primrose Hill housing estate on the main Blarney to Tower road.
The officer was in the rear of the van when a man smashed a window at the front and threw in a plastic bottle containing petrol and a lit rag fuse, but the officer managed to reach the fire extinguisher and quench it.
