Published Wednesday, 13 January 2010
According to a PSNI spokeswoman, PC Peadar Heffron remains in a critical but stable condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast following the surgery which took place on Tuesday.
The Irish-speaking captain of the PSNI gaelic football team had just left his Randalstown home early on Friday morning to start work in west Belfast when the device exploded under his car.
Shocked neighbours rushed to help the injured officer, whose car careered sideways on the slippery Milltown Road, half a mile from where he lived.
He was taken to hospital, with at least a dozen police patrol guards providing an escort as the ambulance travelled along the M2.
Dissident republicans have admitted responsibility for the attack.
Earlier this week, the Chief Constable praised PC Heffron, branding him a "modern-day hero".
"He is someone who has stepped out, someone who is doing the right things for everybody," Matt Baggott said.
"What a fantastic officer he is and what a great man of courage, a man who is doing all the right things in the community, saving people's lives and helping people day in day out.
"I want to pay him that tribute as he lies seriously injured in hospital as a result of this abhorrent attack."
Mr Baggott added that the community wanted their police officers to be part of their life.
"If that means becoming involved with the Gaelic Athletic Association, helping people to have a conversation with us using the Irish language, respecting people in every walk of life and every community - then that's exactly what the Police Service and police officers should be about," he said.
'Devastating'
Sinn Fein deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness paid tribute to constable Heffron and hit out at those behind the attempt to kill him.
"The news that Peadar Heffron has had a leg amputated will come as a terrible blow to him, his wife, his family, colleagues and friends," said the Sinn Fein representative.
"It is a particularly devastating development given Peadar's enthusiasm for sport and his active membership of the GAA.
"His love of the Irish language and Gaelic games, and his membership of the Police Service demonstrate how fundamentally the political situation has changed in recent times."
Mr McGuinness, who has already branded dissident republicans as traitors who are defying the expressed wishes of the Irish people, added: "Those responsible for this futile act know in their hearts that their actions cannot and will not succeed.
"This, of course, makes it all the more tragic that someone who makes such a valuable contribution to community should suffer at the hands of militarists without a political thought or strategy in their heads."
The explosion happened just two miles from the Massereene Army barracks, where two soldiers about to leave for Afghanistan were shot dead by the Real IRA last March.
Police are continuing to appeal for information.