An ATM machine had been ripped from the wall of a filling station during an overnight robbery near Newry

An on-duty police officer has been seriously injured in a hit-and-run incident in Cullyhanna, County Armagh.

The collision, involving a low loader vehicle, happened on Mullaghduff Road as the policeman was investigating the theft of an ATM near Newry.

Police said the lorry was driven at speed directly at the officer and he was pinned between it and a police vehicle. The lorry left the scene.

Police are treating the incident as attempted murder.

The officer is said to be in a stable condition in hospital.

Supt Simon Walls said: "From the accounts of those at the scene, this appears to have been a deliberate act and as such we will be treating this incident as the attempted murder of a police officer."

The PSNI said the officer was struck after police "encountered a suspicious lorry transporting a car".

The officer was struck by the lorry in Cullyhanna after an earlier robbery at an ATM on the Camlough Road near Newry

The incident happened as the officer left the police vehicle to speak to the driver of the other vehicle.

The officer's colleagues provided emergency first aid and the PSNI helicopter was used to transport the injured officer to hospital in Belfast.

The lorry is described as a low loader with a white cab with a red body and a yellow bumper. It was carrying a white or silver vehicle.

Police have appealed for information.

Earlier, a man in his 20s was arrested at Drumass, Inniskeen, in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, after a digger was used to rip the cash machine from the wall of a filling station on the Camlough Road, near Newry, at about 03:30 GMT.

Police said the search is continuing for two other men who fled following that incident.