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Omagh in Northern Ireland: securing evidence at the crime scene
Photo: Oliver Mcveigh / dpa
A police officer has been shot at in Northern Ireland for the first time since 2017.
Two men fired at the off-duty man from a short distance in front of shocked eyewitnesses on the sidelines of a youth soccer training session in the town of Omagh, the Belfast Telegraph newspaper reported on Wednesday evening.
The police officer was reportedly taken to a hospital in critical condition.
A car is said to have been set on fire near the scene of the crime.
The background to the fact is still unclear.
The newspaper pointed out that militant supporters of reunification with EU member Ireland were active in the area.
The police officer also investigated criminal gangs.
The broadcaster Sky News reported that the attack happened on the same street as the Omagh bombing in 1998. The assassination attempt by the Catholic-Republican terrorist group IRA with 29 dead is considered one of the worst individual acts of the decades-long civil war.
wit/dpa/Reuters