Driving force

THIS is the new armoured vehicle Garda bosses have bought to protect the force's most elite unit when they have to confront gangsters and terrorists.

- BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE Crime and Defence Editor

Images obtained by this paper show the battle bus, which has cost up to €500,000 and has just been procured for the Emergency Response Unit.

"It is some machine. It will turn heads the first time it is rolled out," a source told this paper.

It has been delivered to the Gardai's Special Tactics and Operation Command, which includes the ERU and Armed Support Unit, and sources also tell us it is now being retrofitted to the force's needs before becoming operational.

We understand it was bought from German manufacturers Stoof and is officially called an Armoured Tactical Truck or ATT.

The massive truck can carry up to 10 heavily armed ERU officers in even the most dangerous situations.