Dissident republicans have been blamed for a bomb attack which seriously injured a policeman in Castlewellan, Co Down.
The 40-year-old officer and a colleague were opening the gates of the town's RUC station at around 3 a.m. yesterday when a booby trap device, believed to have been placed inside a traffic cone, exploded.
The officer suffered serious leg and hand injuries and was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. His colleague was treated for shock.
Although there have been numerous attacks on security force installations in the North since the IRA ceasefires, yesterday was the first occasion on which a serving police officer had been seriously injured in an attack by republicans since 1997.
With the exception of Sinn Fein, all the major parties in the North condemned the attack.
The First Minister said police commanders in the area had recently warned about increased activity among dissident republicans, especially the "Real IRA".
After visiting the scene, the area's MP, Mr Eddie McGrady of the SDLP, said he was "greatly dismayed by this attack". The RUC station was a "soft target selected to cause maximum disruption to the peace process".
Ulster Unionist Assemblyman and Junior Minister Mr Dermot Nesbitt said the bombing highlighted the need for decommissioning. "What we have to see is this violence over with, done with, finished for good," he said.
Mr Jim Wells, a DUP Assembly member, said he "unreservedly condemned" the attack. Mr Wells also said it "could not have happened without the total support of the IRA" in Castlewellan as there was no dissident republican presence in the town.
Visiting the scene, the Northern Ireland Office Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, said he utterly condemned the attack but denied that it, combined with a series of loyalist killings, meant there was a crisis in the North.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs described the bombing as sinister. Mr Cowen said the incident was a "cowardly and evil act designed to bring about death and injury and more misery to families in the North.
"It was also an attack on the democratic process at a time when representative politicians are striving to reach accommodation on the way forward," he said.
The Sinn Fein MLA for the area, Mr Mick Murphy, said his party wanted an end to all political violence and called upon the British government and unionists to "close down the gaps in which these people work by demonstrating that the peace process works."
Mr Murphy denied any suggestion of Provisional IRA involvement in the attack.
A police source at the scene said the RUC had no doubt that dissident republicans were to blame.
"They are flexing their muscles everywhere. They are more than capable of driving in here and leaving a device on their own," he said.