by Adrian Mullan

A young off-duty policeman was the victim of a dissident bomb attack in Spamount on Monday evening and remains ill in hospital after suffering serious leg injuries.

Ryan Crozier, from Omagh, was targeted in an attack which has caused outrage and disgust across the political divide.

The attack happened at around 9.15 pm as the 26 year old drove along Drumnabey Road, in Spamount, Castlederg. It's understood that a device was attached to his car and exploded a short time after he embarked on his journey to work.

Two local men who where passing saw the victim's car on fire and rushed to the scene to drag him from his car which was alight.

At that juncture they had not realised that the fire had been caused by an explosive device, and simply thought that his car had caught fire due to a mechanical fault.

A third man who was also passing called the Fire Brigade and an ambulance. A few moments after the stricken officer was removed from the car, writhing from the pain of his injuries, the car was completely engulfed by fire.

Chief Constable of the PSNI, Hugh Orde laid the blame for the attack at the door of republican dissidents, he said this was the latest incident in which off-duty officers were being targeted when they were at their most vulnerable.

Mid-Ulster MP, and Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, who visited the Constable in hospital on Tuesday night, appealed for anyone with information to assist the police.

"The elements within our society who perpetrated this act have nothing to offer, they are without mandate or strategy and represent no one," he said. Pat Doherty MP condemned the attack as outrageous.

He said there was "no going back to the past."

However, he suggested that the dissidents were in the death throes; "They know they are in their end game and are desperately lashing out."

Throughout Tuesday the four roads meeting at the cross-roads at Drumnabey Road were closed to traffic as teams of forensics officers examined the scene. The burnt out car remains at the scene and police were approaching it with extreme caution, fearing the presence of a second device. Two heavy duty police bomb disposal units were rushed to the scene on Tuesday.

This is the third obvious attack on the lives of police officers within the past six months.

In both cases, the offices, based in Dungannon and Derry, survived after being able to summon help.

The young officer injured in Monday evening's attack is conscious and alert having undergone surgery, and is keen to return to work.