IRISH communists and trade unionists yesterday slammed a “pointless” shooting in Belfast blamed on dissident Republicans.

Motorists were filling up their vehicles on the forecourt of a north Belfast petrol station on Sunday night when a hail of bullets hit, injuring a policeman.

A high-velocity rifle was used to spray up to 10 shots, Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable George Hamilton said yesterday.

A community officer was shot three times in the arm but his body armour may have saved him from further harm, Mr Hamilton said

Detectives believe the shots were fired from behind a fence across the road from the garage on the Crumlin Road as two officers emerged from the shop.

A man arrested on Sunday night in connection with the shooting remained in custody.

Suspicion fell on IRA splinter groups which reject the Good Friday Agreement and have carried out a string of attacks on security forces.

The Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) and Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) said the attack was obviously timed to further raise tensions after the collapse of the DUP-Sinn Fein power-sharing government.

CPI security spokesman Joe Bowers said: “The only contribution this kind of mindless activity is to unite the all-class alliance of unionism at a time of crisis in the Northern Ireland institutions when the people’s minds are concerned about not only potential financial corruption, but actual political corruption of the structures of the Good Friday Agreement.”

Ictu condemned the “pointless and backward violence.”

Assistant general secretary Owen Reidy said: “The main beneficiaries of this campaign are hardline opponents of the peace process who thrive on the instability created.”

He said the shooting was committed by those who claim to act for “the people” but who only ever “intimidate and threaten ‘the people.’

“They prey on the political instability of an election campaign.

“If they wish to add something positive to anything practical they should go to the people and let them decide at the ballot box.”

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