One RUC man was shot in the arm and another in the shoulder when a car pulled up outside St Mary's primary school in Draperstown, south Derry, just before 10pm, and a gunman jumped out and opened fire. One of the policemen fired one shot in return. The two officers, who were on duty at the polling station, were taken to hospital but their conditions were not thought to be life threatening. Security chiefs in Northern Ireland had warned that the renegade Real IRA, which killed 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bomb, could try and grab the headlines in the elec tion period. Last night's shooting took place in the Mid Ulster constituency of the Sinn Fein minister, Martin McGuinness.
Police think the dissident group has an active unit in the area.
There have been failed bomb attacks on an army base in Derry city and on an RUC station in Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, in the last few weeks. The Real IRA has also set off bombs outside BBC headquarters and a post office in London in the past few months. My thoughts are with these men and their families. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has condemned Real IRA attacks, saying dissidents were trying to fracture the peace process.