Tractor driver arrested for attempted murder after ramming three police cars in North

A tractor driver was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after three police cars pursuing a drink driver were rammed in a small rural village in the North, police said.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said officers would certainly have been “seriously injured or killed” in the tractor pursuit at Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone, in the early hours of Saturday had they not swerved out of its way.

Police said they were responding to a report of a drink driver in the village - 26 km east of Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh - when they called out at a house at Tattenabuddagh Lane just after midnight on Saturday. “While at the address, a man in his 20s tried to evade police in a tractor,” a PSNI spokeswoman said.

“He rammed three police vehicles causing extensive damage to all three vehicles. Attending officers narrowly avoided injury in the incident,” said PSNI Detective Inspector Snoddy.