A 19-YEAR-OLD man was seriously injured after a bombing and shooting incident in the centre of Coalisland, Co Tyrone, last night.
Eyewitnesses said undercover soldiers were involved in the incident.
The explosion occurred at about 9.30 p.m. and is thought to have been near the local police station.
According to eyewitnesses, the shooting occurred close by and immediately after the explosion.
One man, who was standing outside the Cornmill Heritage Centre, said the victim was shot from a car.
"A white Toyota car pulled up and the men in it told some girls to get down on the ground. Then the fellow was walking up the road, he was not running or anything.
"They just rolled down the back passenger window and shot him. Then they jumped out and tied him with red tape," he said.
Local Independent councillor Mr Jim Canning was at a function in a nearby building when he heard the explosion. "A number of us went out and there was a young man lying on the footpath just below the mill and what appeared to be some sort of undercover officer with a gun beside him tying his hands behind his back.
"A number of cars arrived, unmarked cars, and a number of people got out, apparently again undercover soldiers of some kind. There were in plain clothes and wore hats with white markings on them.
"They started to shout at the crowd to go back and eventually there were plastic baton rounds fired and the crowd moved back and an ambulance was called and took the man away. He appeared to be wounded," he said.
A spokesman for the South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon said a 19 year old man was being treated for gunshot wounds to the abdomen and was in a serious but stable condition.
The shooting was condemned by Dungannon Sinn Fein councillor Mr Francie Molloy. Speaking from the scene, he said the man could have been arrested if they suspected him of being guilty of any offence.
In 1992 four men from the area were shot dead after an IRA attack on Coalisland police station. Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Peter Clancy, Sean O'Farrell, and Daniel Vincent were shot in the car park of St Patrick's Church, Clonoe, after the attack on February 16th.
The SDLP's mid Ulster spokesman Mr Denis Haughey said the incident pointed once again to the futility of violence and the trail of pain and suffering it left in its wake.
An RUC spokesman said a full investigation was now underway into the incidents.