A SENIOR Northern Ireland police officer remained in a critical condition in a hospital today after being shot by two masked men on Wednesday night.

Authorities reportedly suspect a dissident republican splinter group of being behind the shooting of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell after he had been coaching a children’s football team at a sports centre in Omagh.

Three men were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of attempted murder and have been questioned at a Belfast police station.

DCI Caldwell is known to have led investigations into murders, organised crime and dissident paramilitary groups.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Simon Byrne branded the shooting “a brazen and calculated attack.”

He told reporters: “Our thoughts are with John and his family as he fights for his life in hospital today.”

Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan told BBC Radio Ulster that “the primary focus is on violent dissident republicans and, within that, there is a primary focus as well on New IRA.”

Politicians across the Northern Irish political spectrum,  from Sinn Fein to the Democratic Unionist Party, condemned the attack, as did and the British and Irish prime ministers.

The leaders of the five biggest parties in the six counties issued a rare joint statement condemning Mr Caldwell’s shooting.

“We speak for the overwhelming majority of people right across our community who are outraged and sickened by this reprehensible and callous attempted murder,” they said.

“There is absolutely no tolerance for such attacks by the enemies of our peace.”

Following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that largely ended “the Troubles” after three decades, major republican and unionist paramilitary groups renounced armed activity and disarmed, but small IRA splinter groups have continued to mount sporadic attacks on security forces.

In November, a home-made bomb exploded under a police car in the town of Strabane. The two officers inside escaped injury.

In April 2019, journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead while reporting on rioting in Derry. The New IRA said that one of its gunmen had hit her by accident while targeting police.

The last fatal attack on a police officer in Northern Ireland was the April 2011 killing of Constable Ronan Kerr, who died when a booby-trap bomb exploded under his car in Omagh.