The Northern Ireland Office Minister, George Howarth, has condemned this morning's car bomb attack on a Catholic man in Castlewellan in County Down as an evil attempt at murder and hurt. A 21-year-old civil servant was treated for a leg injury after the device exploded as he got into his car outside his home. He was later discharged from hospital. The device was planted underneath the vehicle on the driver's side some time after 10pm last night. The RUC said that it was a crude but effective device consisting of home-made explosives, which would have taken several minutes to attach to the car. No motive has yet been established for the attack. The local SDLP Assembly member, Eamonn O'Neill, who knows the family well said that they have no political connections and had been randomly targeted. He believes that the attack may be related to the past two weeks of Loyalist violence surrounding the Drumcree protest.
