Youths beat bus driver with pistol

A Belfast Citybus driver has sustained head injuries after being beaten about the head with a pistol during an attack on his …

A Belfast Citybus driver has sustained head injuries after being beaten about the head with a pistol during an attack on his vehicle on Friday.

Three youths boarded the bus in the Forthriver Road area before producing a knife and a handgun and demanding money from the driver. They pistol-whipped him before escaping with a sum of money.

A spokesman for the Transport and General Workers Union, Mr John Coffey, said drivers were devastated at yet another attack on one of their colleagues.

"The robbery was quite a reminder that this type of thing has not gone away yet. The question has to be asked: Do we have to continue suffering these attacks?"

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Meanwhile, two pipe-bombs have been recovered from behind a railway station in Whitehead, Co Antrim. British army bomb disposal officers were called in to deal with the devices, which were found in an area between the station and local shops on Saturday afternoon. Rail services on the Belfast to Larne line were disrupted for several hours due to the alert.

Elsewhere, a device exploded inside Rosemount police station in Derry. Officers investigating the blast said a loud bang had been heard shortly after 10 p.m. on Friday. It turned out that a small explosive device had been thrown into the barracks.

No one was injured in the attack and no damage was caused to the police station.

Police have been continuing their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a woman in Co Down. The body of Ms Anne McAteer (59) was found on the Clontagora Road in the Kileen area outside Newry on Friday.

It is not yet clear how she died, but it is thought her body was hit by a vehicle as she lay on the road.