Bomb attack policeman loses leg

A Catholic policeman who survived a dissident republican bomb attack has had his right leg amputated, police confirmed today.

Peadar Heffron, 33, underwent major surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast yesterday.

He had just left his home outside Randalstown, Co Antrim, to start work in west Belfast when the device exploded under his blue Alfa Romeo car early last Friday morning.

A police spokeswoman said: "His condition remains critical but stable."

As captain of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Gaelic football team and a fluent Irish speaker, Pc Heffron represents the changing face of a service which is steadily redressing a traditional religious imbalance in policing north of the border.

This week PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott described the recently-married officer as a man of great courage.

"He is a modern-day hero, he is someone who has stepped out, someone who is doing the right things for everybody," he said.

Mr Baggott said he was confident the attack would not dissuade other recruits from a nationalist background from joining the service.

Shocked neighbours rushed to help PC Heffron, whose car careered sideways on the slippery Milltown Road at around 6.30am, half a mile from where he lived.

He was taken to hospital for emergency treatment before being transferred to the Royal Victoria in Belfast, where he remains in a critical condition.

Up to a dozen police cars escorted the ambulance as it drove along the M2 motorway into the city.

The explosion happened two miles from the Massereene Army barracks, where two soldiers just about to leave for Afghanistan were shot dead by the Real IRA last March.

Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, were gunned down as they collected a pizza delivery outside the gates of the base.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, DUP leader Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness as well as other politicians and church leaders on all sides, have condemned the bombing.

It is the latest in a series of attacks by dissidents and was virtually identical to one close to the PSNI headquarters, in which an officer's girlfriend narrowly escaped death last October.

Last year PC Heffron, who has served with the police for nine years, was among officers who attended the first meeting at which discussions in Londonderry between Policing Board officials and members of the public were conducted in the Irish language.

He also played a key role in establishing the PSNI's Gaelic football team and was this season's captain.

He once played for Kickhams Creggan, a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club based in Randalstown.