Police in the North were pelted with paint bombs as they escorted a hearse to a morgue in Derry city today.
Officers looked on in disbelief as up to 10 youths launched an attack in front of the dead woman's physically disabled daughter. Stones were also thrown by the gang.
The city's former mayor Ms Annie Courtney said: "This shouldn't happen in a civilised society. It's abominable."
No-one was hurt, but the ferocity of the attack on a hearse which had just pulled away from the woman's house, stunned all sides in the city.
The 59-year-old's daughter was in a car travelling behind the hearse on its way from the Gobnascale estate to the morgue at the nearby Altnagelvin hospital.
Police, who were called in the investigate the sudden death, were in a Land Rover and, without warning, suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of a barrage of missiles.
A windscreen on their vehicle was smashed during the attack on Trench Road.
Officers had gone to the Catholic part of the city as part of their standard inquiry into all sudden deaths. It is understood the woman had died of natural causes.
With attacks on fire and ambulance services in the city also spiralling, Police Inspector Bob Torrens appealed for anyone with influence to act. "It was a disgraceful and insensitive attack on essential emergency services doing their statutory duty," he said.
"Community leaders must get these attacks stopped and parents need to exercise control on their children before there is serious injury or someone is killed."
Last night, police came under petrol bomb attack in a loyalist area of the city as the emergency services tried to put out a fire. Rubbish had been placed across the Ardmore Road before devices were launched at the road block, setting it alight.
Twelve petrol bombs, bricks and bottles were then hurled at police before the fire was put out and one man was arrested. No one was injured.
PA