Two people have been arrested for an attack on a polling station in Co Derry last night in which three people were shot and wounded. Counting in the North's Westminster election gets underway today.
Two police officers and a woman were injured after a gunman opened fire on a polling station at St Mary's Primary School in Draperstown at around 9.45 p.m.
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A gunman stepped out of a car and opened fire as people headed in to the polling station to cast their votes. It is understood the police returned fire, firing one shot. The attacker is believed to have fled the scene in a silver Volkswagen Passat.
One RUC officer was wounded in the shoulder, his colleague was struck in the arm and a young woman was also hit in the leg during the attack.
It is not clear at this stage which paramilitary group was responsible for the gun attack, but dissident republicans are suspected.
Politicians united to condemn the attack. Mr Denis Haughey, SDLP assembly member for the area, said it was not just a murderous and thuggish attack on the police but "an attack on democracy and the fabric of society itself".
Sinn Féin chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin said his party had made it clear dissident republicans had nothing to offer and should stop immediately.
"They have no support and that is evidenced by the fact that these small groups couldn't put candidates up in the election."
Sir Reg Empey, Ulster Unionist Party Enterprise Minister, said the shooting showed there needed to be a renewed effort to resolve the political problems remaining in implementing the Belfast Agreement and "rid us of the scourge of terrorism".
Mr Seamus Mallon, SDLP deputy leader and Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, also condemned the attack and said the British prime minister Mr Blair should use his renewed mandate to press for progress in implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
Meanwhile, as counting was getting under way there were indications that the turn out in Northern Ireland had risen from 67 per cent to around 72 per cent amid tactical voting in a bid to maximise the return of the largest number of pro-agreement MP's.
Both Sinn Féin and the SDLP predicted they would take the key West Tyrone seat from Ulster Unionist Mr William Thompson.
Mr McLaughlin said their exit poll indicated they had taken the seat comfortably with candidate, party vice president Mr Pat Doherty.
But Mr Mallon was convinced SDLP candidate Mrs Brid Rodgers, Agriculture Minister at Stormont, had won.
PA