Ira Blamed For Attack On Policewoman

A policewoman of the Royal Ulster Constabulary was shot in the chest and seriously wounded in Londonderry on Thursday, in the most recent incident of apparently sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. The attack, which the police and officials said they believed was the work of the Irish Republican Army, added to the mounting violence in Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland in the first week of the campaign for British parliamentary elections. There are 18 seats at stake in Northern Ireland.

The policewoman, whose name was not disclosed, was shot once by a gunman from the back of a passing van about 4 p.m., the same time that the IRA had been widely expected to make a statement that it would end its armed campaign for the duration of the election campaign. The officer had been on duty outside a courthouse in the center of Londonderry, a predominantly Catholic city in the western part of the province. About 93 percent of the police in the province are Protestant.

The violence over the last week in this British province has raised fears of more to come in the days before the May 1 elections.