Two teens arrested in connection with Journalist Lyra Mckee’s murder case

Northern Ireland police have arrested two teenagers in the killing of 29-year-old investigative journalist Lyra McKee, authorities said Saturday.

The 18 and 19-year-olds were arrested in Londonderry under anti-terror laws and taken to the police station in Central Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

McKee, who was a prominent journalist was killed in the Creggan area of Londonderry on Thursday in what police in Northern Ireland have described as a "terrorist incident."

Dissident republicans are believed to be responsible for her death, which happened during a night of rioting. Images from the scene showed cars alight as a crowd threw fireworks and petrol bombs at emergency vehicles.

McKee was standing close to a police vehicle when she was wounded by a single gunman firing shots into a residential area. She died soon after, from her injuries, assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton told reporters Friday.

Tributes to the 29-year-old were led by her partner, Sara Canning, who said McKee's "amazing potential was snuffed out by this single barbaric act".

Detectives hunting the gunman had released footage of the unrest, hoping that the community would help trace her killers.

Some officials blamed Thursday's unrest on the "New IRA", a republican paramilitary group opposed to the shift towards non-violent tactics to bring about a united Ireland.

The Saoradh party denies being the political wing of the New IRA (Irish Republican Army).

Saoradh said Friday that "heavily armed" police went into Creggan "to attack republicans in advance of upcoming Easter Rising Commemorations".

"The inevitable reaction to such an incursion was resistance from the youth of Creggan," added the statement.

Belfast-born McKee, 29, had posted an image from the riots, accompanied by the words "Derry tonight. Absolute madness".

Mckee, who was born in Belfast, is the first journalist to be killed in the United Kingdom since 2001, according to nonprofit organization the Committee to Protect Journalists.