Two burnt-out cars linked to the attempted murder of a police officer went missing for at least 24 hours, Belfast Live can reveal.
The whereabouts of the potentially vital evidence, a Saab and a Dublin-reg Skoda, in that period remain unclear.
Both were set on fire in Ardoyne in North Belfast at around 2am on Saturday but had been removed from the area by around lunchtime that day.
On Sunday, police officers were desperately trying to trace the vehicles.
A source on the ground said: “Police returned to the scene on Sunday to continue their investigations and were asking residents if they knew anything. They were doing door-to-door enquiries.
"Police were asking [residents] was it the council - but they wouldn't have been that quick. It's all very strange."
The council told Belfast Live they weren't involved.
Just before 1pm on Monday, a PSNI spokesman confirmed that they had been located now, but they wouldn’t say where or when.
They said that “at this time, there’s nothing further to add to the previously released info”.
UUP MLA Doug Beattie said: “These are key questions that need to be asked about this whole thing."
Meanwhile, police reissued an appeal for anyone who saw the two vehicles prior to them being burnt out.
Detective Superintendent Sean Wright said yesterday: “This was an appalling, cowardly attack on not just a police officer but on the local community and Northern Ireland as a whole.
“I have already asked for people who were in the areas of Green Road, Knockhill Park, Upper Newtownards Road, Shandon Park and Shandon Park Golf Club anytime between 10pm on Friday, 31 May and 7.30am on Saturday, June 1 to come forward and I’ve encouraged anyone who lives in those areas and has CCTV to speak to my team.
“I have spoken about two vehicles that I’m interested in, both of which were found burnt out in Etna Drive in the early hours of Saturday morning – a green coloured Skoda Octavia, VRM 01D78089 and silver coloured SAAB 95, VRM NFZ 3216.
“I want to speak to anyone who saw them in the Ballyhackamore or Upper Newtownards Road area between midnight and 2am on Saturday, June 1.
"This was the early hours of Saturday morning when people will have been out socialising. The area will have been busy and I’d appeal to taxi drivers to consider if they have any dash-cam footage, to contact Terrorism Investigation Unit detectives on 101.”
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